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Ask HN: Book that is completely opposite of how you think as a software dev?

8 points by 38932ur98u ↗ HN
Have you ever read anything that has exposed you to a way of thinking that's just so incredibly different from everything software development/startup related? A kind of new mental model that doesn't even fit the abstraction-based, incredibly analytical mental models that devs usually try to use to explain the world (i.e. “mentals models are a mental model”)? It seems to me like we (and I’m probably projecting here) try to quickly put ideas into a rough abstraction so we can classify them and be done with it. But how about a style of thinking that has no concept of abstraction, or models? Or what’s an abstraction of software dev style thinking? If there is some higher level of abstraction to dev thinking, then what’s another ‘concrete’ style on the same level as that? Just some thoughts…I’d love to hear suggestions on books that were starkly different than how you currently think about the world.

6 comments

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some_account
It's lonely outside the box :) No but seriously, you bring up interesting ideas.
quickthrower2
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, although admittedly I never finished it, I can't remember why. I really want to pick it up again.
saltvedt
Not that I've actually read the book myself, but Being and Time by Heidegger seems to fit your description.

Reading it will feel like running into a brick wall, so I suggest reading about Heidegger for context first: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/heidegger/

Reading the article above might still feel like running into a wall though (perhaps one of wood, this time). You might want to have a listen to an episode on Heidegger by Philosophize This!: http://philosophizethis.org/episode-100-transcript/

jxub
Conan the Barbarian comes to mind.

A tale of magick, poetry and raw killer instinct in a godforsaken universe.

bewe42
"Why greatness cannot be planned". Changed the way I search for new ideas. Instead of goal setting and conquer-and-divide approach, I allow myself to be guided by what I find interesting, even if it seems to be wasting time. In the book, the author calls that "finding stepping stones". I always felt that this is a better way to create new things but was unable to put it into words.

There's also a talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXQPL9Gooy