7 ms·

Ask HN: Are there any good self development/hacking books out there

29 points by lewi 16y ago

I'm looking for any good hacking or self dev books. Something like "Emergency" by Neil Strauss but more technical and less story. Sorta like a collection of how-to's and general knowledge stuff. Suggestions appreciated!

zdw 16y ago
For programming, I like "The Productive Programmer" http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596519544 http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596519544 And for Sysadmin, it would be hard to beat "The Practice of System and Network Administration" http://everythingsysadmin.com/ http://everythingsysadmin.com/
- TomLimoncelli 16y ago
  As the co-author of TPoSaNA I am flattered but for the question at hand, I'd recommend a different book. Time Management for System Administrators from O'Reilly is more in line with what he's looking for. http://www.tomontime.com/ http://www.tomontime.com/ and http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0596007833/tomontime-20 http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0596007833/tomontime-20 for more info. (Of course, since I wrote this other book, I don't mind recommending it :-) --Tom
bombs 16y ago
eHow have a book called How To Do Just About Everything. http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Just-About-Everything-Ehow/dp/0007172303 http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Just-About-Everything-Ehow/dp/00... Lifehacker have Upgrade Your Life. http://lifehackerbook.com/ http://lifehackerbook.com/ They seem to be collections of articles from their websites.
- lewi 16y ago
  That eHow book looks sorta cool. Thanks!
  - lenary 16y ago
    i have a copy. it's not as good as it looks.
serpent 16y ago
Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware by Andy Hunt http://pragprog.com/titles/ahptl/pragmatic-thinking-and-learning http://pragprog.com/titles/ahptl/pragmatic-thinking-and-lear... Worth a look.
- grigy 16y ago
  As more technical from Pragmatic series: http://www.pragprog.com/the-pragmatic-programmer http://www.pragprog.com/the-pragmatic-programmer I love this book.
aaronblohowiak 16y ago
make big changes gradually, make small changes frequently. respect that self-control is a limited resource. measure your progress.
- Tyrannosaurs 16y ago
  This is a great sentence which sums up the sort of things that many self help books will drag out to 400+ pages. I'd seriously encourage anyone who wants to improve their life to spend the time sat down with a pad scribbling out what they're happy with about their lives, what they're not happy with, what they want to change and coming up with their own plan for doing so. For the most part anyone on this board is smart and more able to solve their own problems than a generic self help book which will generally take a couple of bits of common sense and then string them out into a whole book. Don't get me wrong, I love books and I love reading but in the case of self help books I think more often than not they're targeted procrastination and the time would be better spent addressing the things you're not happy with.
to_the_top 16y ago
four steps to the epiphany
- c1sc0 16y ago
  While that book is a great classic on product development, it's not strictly about hacking.
hotmind 16y ago
Try http://www.zerotosuperhero.com http://www.zerotosuperhero.com
- lachyg 16y ago
  Just bought this on your recommendation, what do you think of it?
  - hotmind 16y ago
    Thank you. I wrote and published the book Zero to Superhero after four years of research and self-experimentation (I thought my profile bio was disclosure enough. I guess not). If you're not completely happy with the purchase of the book, let me know and I'll refund your money immediately.
    - semanticist 16y ago
      I suppose that you know your own conversion rates well enough, but I personally am not going to click a PayPal 'buy now' button just to find out how much the book costs. In fact, not listing the price screams of scam to me.
      - hotmind 16y ago
        I'm confused. The e-book costs $10, and it's prominently stated. Are you referring to something else on the site? Let me know and I'll fix it.
        photon_off 16y ago
        I just visited the site and scanned it 3 times, couldn't find the price. I'm sure it's there somewhere if you say it is, but I couldn't easily find it. Just a heads up
        hotmind 16y ago
wizche 16y ago
Hacking: The art of Exploitation by Jon Erickson http://nostarch.com/hacking2.htm http://nostarch.com/hacking2.htm
newsisan 16y ago
http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html

29 points by lewi 16y ago

zdw 16y ago

For programming, I like "The Productive Programmer" http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596519544 http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596519544 And for Sysadmin, it would be hard to beat "The Practice of System and Network Administration" http://everythingsysadmin.com/ http://everythingsysadmin.com/

TomLimoncelli 16y ago
As the co-author of TPoSaNA I am flattered but for the question at hand, I'd recommend a different book. Time Management for System Administrators from O'Reilly is more in line with what he's looking for. http://www.tomontime.com/ http://www.tomontime.com/ and http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0596007833/tomontime-20 http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0596007833/tomontime-20 for more info. (Of course, since I wrote this other book, I don't mind recommending it :-) --Tom

bombs 16y ago

eHow have a book called How To Do Just About Everything. http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Just-About-Everything-Ehow/dp/0007172303 http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Just-About-Everything-Ehow/dp/00... Lifehacker have Upgrade Your Life. http://lifehackerbook.com/ http://lifehackerbook.com/ They seem to be collections of articles from their websites.

lewi 16y ago
That eHow book looks sorta cool. Thanks!
- lenary 16y ago
  i have a copy. it's not as good as it looks.

serpent 16y ago

Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware by Andy Hunt http://pragprog.com/titles/ahptl/pragmatic-thinking-and-learning http://pragprog.com/titles/ahptl/pragmatic-thinking-and-lear... Worth a look.

grigy 16y ago
As more technical from Pragmatic series: http://www.pragprog.com/the-pragmatic-programmer http://www.pragprog.com/the-pragmatic-programmer I love this book.

aaronblohowiak 16y ago

make big changes gradually, make small changes frequently. respect that self-control is a limited resource. measure your progress.

Tyrannosaurs 16y ago
This is a great sentence which sums up the sort of things that many self help books will drag out to 400+ pages. I'd seriously encourage anyone who wants to improve their life to spend the time sat down with a pad scribbling out what they're happy with about their lives, what they're not happy with, what they want to change and coming up with their own plan for doing so. For the most part anyone on this board is smart and more able to solve their own problems than a generic self help book which will generally take a couple of bits of common sense and then string them out into a whole book. Don't get me wrong, I love books and I love reading but in the case of self help books I think more often than not they're targeted procrastination and the time would be better spent addressing the things you're not happy with.

to_the_top 16y ago

four steps to the epiphany

c1sc0 16y ago
While that book is a great classic on product development, it's not strictly about hacking.

hotmind 16y ago

Try http://www.zerotosuperhero.com http://www.zerotosuperhero.com

lachyg 16y ago
Just bought this on your recommendation, what do you think of it?
- hotmind 16y ago
  Thank you. I wrote and published the book Zero to Superhero after four years of research and self-experimentation (I thought my profile bio was disclosure enough. I guess not). If you're not completely happy with the purchase of the book, let me know and I'll refund your money immediately.
  - semanticist 16y ago
    I suppose that you know your own conversion rates well enough, but I personally am not going to click a PayPal 'buy now' button just to find out how much the book costs. In fact, not listing the price screams of scam to me.
    - hotmind 16y ago
      I'm confused. The e-book costs $10, and it's prominently stated. Are you referring to something else on the site? Let me know and I'll fix it.
      - photon_off 16y ago
        I just visited the site and scanned it 3 times, couldn't find the price. I'm sure it's there somewhere if you say it is, but I couldn't easily find it. Just a heads up
        hotmind 16y ago

wizche 16y ago

Hacking: The art of Exploitation by Jon Erickson http://nostarch.com/hacking2.htm http://nostarch.com/hacking2.htm

newsisan 16y ago

http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html