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Huh, this is not what I expected. Ana Bell is my undergraduate advisor at MIT. I do not think that these choices are particularly the best for someone with no p
by joebergeron 8y ago
Huh, this is not what I expected. Ana Bell is my undergraduate advisor at MIT. I do not think that these choices are particularly the best for someone with no programming or computer science experience whatsoever, as others have said. What strikes me as particularly odd is that I believe she teaches 6.0001, which is a relatively new "very much a complete intro" half-semester course for programming, taught in Python. I suppose I would have expected more truly beginner-friendly material in her recommendations.
- kup0 8y agoTo be fair, on HN the title is "best books to learn X" but the actual article states "best books on X" which is a subtle but significant difference in wording. I don't think that the list was intended to be a starting place for learning computer science and programming.
- dragonwriter 8y agoShe also explains that most of the basics of making code work aren't best learned from books, and “What you can get out of programming books is the thought process behind the ideas. Language takes a back seat to the concepts presented, in the sense that ideas in a book should be universal to any programming language.” This seems to be ignored in much of the negative commentary, which criticize her for not recommending books for the role she expressly stated books are not needed for (without actually engaging with her statement) and object that she is only recommending books that do what she says books are most needed for in the context of CS/programming.