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>>book or a tool that will help you to learn better and become I've tried that before, many times. Unfortunately when you are trying to do real work those book
by user837387 10y ago
>>book or a tool that will help you to learn better and become
I've tried that before, many times. Unfortunately when you are trying to do real work those books are many times useless. Example, I kept trying to build a newtonian physics simulator so I got a Statics and Dynamics mechanical engineering book. The book was a text book for Mechanical engineering students and yet the examples they teach you are for toy problems. I could not generalize them to real world scenarios. To actually build the physics simulator I had to scour the internet until I found something that actually explained what I needed in an easy to understand manner [1]. And that still was not enough. I still had to use more online sources to find out all the other pieces, like the separating axes theorem for collision detection.
So no, I would not rely on books anymore, at least not exclusively since they often do not provide a full picture. One last thing, books seem to be getting progressively worse in my experience. All of this is anecdotal of course.
[1]http://chrishecker.com/Rigid_Body_Dynamics http://chrishecker.com/Rigid_Body_Dynamics
- lucb1e 10y agoI have the same experience with books. I don't buy non-fiction for learning purposes* because it never worked. I tried with an IPv6 book which I read a few chapters of; I tried with another book or two that I don't even remember; I was gifted two books, one about making games and the other about programming paradigms, neither of which I ever read more than a few pages of... and yet I'm perfectly proficient by just playing around in spare time and looking up stuff I need and stuff I run into. * I do buy non-fiction for amusement and casual interests though, like Predictably Irrational.
- Bartweiss 10y agoAs an aside, buying a print reference book frequently feels counterproductive. Even if I'm going to get a formal reference text, instead of online resources, I probably want a digital copy. Otherwise, I find myself going "I wish I could do text search for this thing..." and wondering why I didn't get the version that actually allows that. When I read for pleasure I enjoy the physicality of books; when I read for technical reference I demand the interface of a computer.
- johncolanduoni 10y agoFor books without ebooks from the manufacturer but for which I can find an illicit PDF or djvu, I usually buy the print one and read the digital version.