HN Explorer

Ask HN: I started a publishing company. What technical books are missing?

10 points by dpods ↗ HN
My name is Dave and I'm starting a publishing business. I've decided to narrow my focus on what I know...software engineering. I don't have a website yet, but I'm compiling a list topics/categories/books that I think are missing in the market but I'd like to hear from you if there's a book that you'd like to see.

Some topics I've come up with so far:

* Project based books. By the end of the book you will have built a complete application. Things like simple databases, operating systems, compilers/interpreters, shells, build your own framework, blockchain.

* Career focused books. Making the jump from junior to senior engineer, soft skills, navigating office politics, etc.

* Remote working - pros/cons of remote working, how to make the transition, etc

My plan is to identify compelling writers and programmers who specialize in these areas and work with them to publish books on these topics. I'd love to get any feedback on other topics you'd like to read about.

Thanks!

10 comments

[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 35.0 ms ] thread
cocksure
There's no satisfactory book on how to read substantial code. The result is that everyone is a writer and no one is a reader. Can you imagine a situation where almost anyone can write literary novels, but very few can read them?
dpods
I've heard this a few other times in the past actually. Are you talking about strategies for getting familiar with a new code base? Or more general like debugging or code reviews?

Do you have examples of books on this topic that you're not satisfied with?

diehunde
I always have trouble finding books that describe the "internals" of some technologies I want to learn in a decent and technical way. Some O'reilly books do a good job when they work with the actual people that invented the tools but there are many more out there that don't have good books on that.
dpods
I would agree with this. I have a much better understand of how a database works after doing a small side project trying to implement one. I can imagine it would be helpful for other technologies as well such a docker, react, redis, etc.

Thanks for the input!

happppy
Good Project based books especially for topics like AI, scaling, architecture, hacking and other I can't think of right now are so scarce.
usgroup
IMO , focus on the project based books. I think this next decade will only see more self educated and meritocratically qualified folks who actively seek out accessible material akin in approach to how they learnt to programme.

IMO, focus on where the industry is going:

1. Cloud infra

2. ML.

3. SPAs

4. IoT

potta_coffee
I second this. I'm self-educated, do a lot of freelance work and end up working on a huge variety of projects. While I feel like I've got a pretty good handle on languages and general programming, sometimes it's really difficult to find good quality information on the specifics of how to implement project x on platform y.
dpods
Thanks for the input! I'll make note of these topics and look for some writers in these areas. I agree, I kind of hit a plateau in my technical skills, but these project based tutorials really helped push me forward again.
tucaz
To me, nowadays, the hardest part of learning a new technology or language is not the “thing” itself but the environment around it.

Make content about environments.

Example: I want to start doing Ruby. There are probably 49 ways to setup a decent working environment and hundreds of people putting a lot of tools together to get it started. They all conflict with each other and almost none are clear. Any material that can explain environments in a way that make sense and help you get started as efficient and completely as possible is gold.

This is true for all platforms today.

adamnemecek
Problem with this is that this type of information gets old very fast.