7 ms·

Ask HN: Recommend books that give you insight into other professions

154 points by unklefolk 6y ago

I want to read books that give me insights into other professions preferably something unrelated to and far from working in technology. For example, what is it like to work on a container ship or the life of a forest ranger. Memoirs with a bit of adventure are a bonus. Thanks!

mellosouls 6y ago
This is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay Memoirs of a Doctor in the UK. Very funny at times and moving as well. Useful insights for outsiders into the medical profession and a light read. NHS based, but presumably relevant to other health systems and countries. https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_Going_to_Hurt https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_Going_to_Hurt
statusanxiety 6y ago
Down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell is an excellent insight into the life of a parisian dishwasher in the 1920s. Its also a great exploration of the lives of the working class in that time period. Just Kids by Patti Smith is a beautiful look into the life of a poet and artist.
ju-st 6y ago
Uncommon Carriers https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OA64LQ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OA64LQ "a collection of six excursions across the United States in various vehicles: coal train; barge-pushing towboat; a canoe on the Concord and Merrimack River, following John and Henry Thoreau's excursion in August, 1839; a UPS sorting station and truck; a five-axle, sixty-five foot, eighteen-wheel chemical tanker. " (quote from an Amazon review)
klenwell 6y ago
Not exactly what you asked for but something in a similar vein are profession-specific Reddit forms. I'm not sure they fully qualify as professions but I've found these two regularly odd and insightful: - https://old.reddit.com/r/InstacartShoppers/ https://old.reddit.com/r/InstacartShoppers/ - https://old.reddit.com/r/McDonaldsEmployees/ https://old.reddit.com/r/McDonaldsEmployees/ I guess you could also add these to the list: - https://old.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/ https://old.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/ - https://old.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/ https://old.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/ I'm always looking out for curious little subreddits like these that give you a glimpse into a different way of living or working. If anyone has any other recommendations, please share.
- Shared404 6y ago
  Also https://old.reddit.com/r/kitchenconfidential https://old.reddit.com/r/kitchenconfidential
- dryd 6y ago
  https://old.reddit.com/r/Accounting/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Accounting/
- blisse 6y ago
  I enjoy https://reddit.com/r/starbucks/ https://reddit.com/r/starbucks/ since it's just baristas being angry lol
swyx 6y ago
Ex finance guy here - Liar's Poker for 1980s Wall Street, When Genius Failed for 1990s, More Money Than God for 2000s, Flash Boys for 2010s - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liar%27s_Poker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liar%27s_Poker - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Genius_Failed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Genius_Failed - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Money_Than_God https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Money_Than_God - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Boys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Boys obviously these do not represent all of finance but its a nice decade-by-decade recap of talking points, i figured i'd try to do it and was surprised how nicely it broke out
- cambalache 6y ago
  Those are all good recommendations, but if anything tech/SV is resembling every day more and more to 1980s WS.
  - swyx 6y ago
    yep. i'm merely one of many finance bros that escaped to tech. if you work in martech, then you absolutely outpaced wallstreet haha.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    I think it's different in that you do have some subset of people who think they're doing things for the common good, and some actually are, but... "Greed is good" Gordon Gecko
    - cambalache 6y ago
      Lots of finance people, rightly or wrongly justify their work as giving a valuable service to humanity: From "providing liquidity" to "absorbing risk" and "helping your pension grow" the list of supposed goods provided by finance is very long.
      - ghaff 6y ago
        And they're not entirely wrong. Although there are benefits provided by other industries on net (probably including tech) that are greater.
blackgirldev 6y ago
Working, by Studs Terkel https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_(Terkel_book) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_(Terkel_book)
NothingIsReal 6y ago
1. How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success in Selling, Bettger A good intro to sales, and a very good book on self-development. 2. When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management, Lowenstein A story about LTCM, one of the early and most notorious "quant" hedge funds. A cheeky nod to intellectualism. 3. Liar's Poker, Lewis Investment banking through a trader's eyes. Yes, the absurdity is only partly dramatized. 4. Pimp: The Story of My Life, Iceberg Slim No pithy blurb can summarize this; read it if you want a look into human nature. 5. The Six-Month Fix: Adventures in Rescuing Failing Companies, Sutton Written by a friend and a mentor; may he rest. Gives you a sobering account of what really goes behind the scenes of many companies, along with their management. Apologies; I know this list isn't focused on more humbling professions like the examples you gave.
ghaff 6y ago
Historical but Boys on the Bus by Timothy Crouse on old-style political journalism. (Although I imagine a lot is still true.) There's a lot about journalism, photojournalism, and so forth (perhaps unsurprisingly) although so much has changed in the past 10-20 years it probably isn't that relevant to those professions today.
potions 6y ago
Diary of a Very Bad Year: Confessions of an Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager is really entertaining and lucid if you are interested in a 'casual'(in tone) explanation of the global financial crisis. It's a set of interviews with "n+1 magazine" from the course of the year later expanded and collated.
shortandsweet 6y ago
Nine pints by Rose George. While not entirely about leechers, a chapter is dedicated to the raising and using of leeches in modern medicine. Very fascinating.
legitster 6y ago
"First Do No Harm" - A memoir from a brain surgeon.
- dangets 6y ago
  I'll plug 'When Breath Becomes Air', also for brain surgeon.
  - randcraw 6y ago
    And I'll add Atul Gawande's “Better” and “Complications” on general surgery in particular and medicine in general.
- rscho 6y ago
  For something a touch more down to earth regarding medicine: House of God, by Samuel Shem. It might be difficult to believe, but this book is very realistic. Much more so than many other insufferable navel-gazing books about medical work taking grand philosophical stances.
Tade0 6y ago
Whispers: The Voices of Paranoia, Ronald K. Siegel A collection of stories showing some of the ugly parts of being a psychopharmacologist, based on the author's own experiences.
paulgb 6y ago
> what is it like to work on a container ship You might like The Shipping Man by Matthew McCleery. It's fiction, but the author is in the shipping financing industry and the book is a fun way to learn about (a caricaturized version of) that world.
embit 6y ago
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat By neurologist Oliver Sacks is a great book describing some of his very interesting cases. More importantly, his writing style is brilliant.
varenc 6y ago
Check out “Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs” It’s fascinating and covers a very wide range of professions. Sorta of like a more modern remake of Stud Terkel’s 1974 book “Working”
fluxic 6y ago
Editing: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg >>> Max Perkins was the editor of Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, F Scott Fitzgerald, and other famous 20th century writers. Great, great, book. Bartending: Cosmopolitan by Toby Cecchini >>> Very well-written memoir of a bartender in New York in the late 1980s. He invented the Cosmo in NYC while working at the Odeon — on a lark, without thinking much of it. The drink took off, but I think he's still a working bartender in NYC. Cooking: Kitchen Confidential by Bourdain Painting: Interviews with Francis Bacon by David Sylvester Music: Meet me in the Bathroom by Lizzy Goodman Tech: Chaos Monkeys by AGM And seconding swyx's recommendations for all things Michael Lewis, who can spin a good yarn about any profession — whether it's baseball managers, junk bond salesmen, or high frequency traders, etc. I've also picked up lots of good recommendations from this thread https://ask.metafilter.com/243036/Recommend-a-nonfiction-author-who-has-a-style-like-Anthony-Bourdain https://ask.metafilter.com/243036/Recommend-a-nonfiction-aut... (I, too, like "insidery" type business books. I'm currently reading "The Emperor of Scent" about the world of perfume and it's pretty good! Also looking forward to reading "Ninety Percent of Everything" about the shipping industry.)
why5s 6y ago
Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs https://www.amazon.com/Gig-Americans-Talk-About-Their/dp/0609807072 https://www.amazon.com/Gig-Americans-Talk-About-Their/dp/060... It's basically a series of interviews with people across various industries talking about their jobs. Not exactly "memoir"-style but more of an anthology. Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber https://www.amazon.com/Bullshit-Jobs-Theory-David-Graeber/dp/1501143336/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=bullshit+jobs&qid=1607207865&s=books&sr=1-1 https://www.amazon.com/Bullshit-Jobs-Theory-David-Graeber/dp... A personal favorite that I read alongside the first recommendation. Just puts a lot of things in perspective with respect to finding meaningful work.
- shicky 6y ago
  With bullshit jobs, could you expand on finding meaningful work? It's something that has eaten me up the last while (non meaningful work and being unsure what direction to head to find it) I've searched a few reviews of the book but largely seemed to focus on how many jobs are pointless rather than finding non pointless stuff
deleted 6y ago
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Jugurtha 6y ago
Here's a reply[0] to a question that asked about directory structure. Ignore the programming/technology part. Military books (such as "One Bullet Away" by Nathaniel Fick or "Generation Kill" by Evan Wright which was turned into a mini-series on HBO). Field manuals can be interesting and you can learn a lot from them. Knot books. "Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War" by Robert Gates is interesting. "The Art of Intelligence", by Henry Crumpton. "Diplomacy" by Henry Kissinger is an interesting read. It starts with the balance of power in Europe, raison d'état, Richelieu, "U.S. exceptionalism". It is well written. - [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17593922 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17593922
- wmoser 6y ago
  Since you called out working on a container ship, a lot of these have a nautical bent but that’s an area of my personal interest as well. Looking for a ship, John McPhee, Book about a sailor looking for work and eventually catching a ship. Born A Crime, Trevor Noah, not about another career but Apertheid South Africa, I enjoyed it and wished I would have read it before traveling through S.A. For work. Don’t Tell mum I work on the rigs, she thinks I’m a piano player in a whorehouse, by Paul Carter, read this one awhile ago but it’s about an oil well driller. The industry has changed quite a bit since this book was written but I remember really enjoying it. Salvage: a personal odyssey by Ian Tew. I enjoyed this book about a a salvage master out of Singapore The ride of a lifetime by Robert Iger, book about Iger’s journey to being CEO of Walt Disney Company. A bit of insight to what the company executives are doing/ supposed to be doing? Quench Your Own Thirst, Jim Koch, the founder of the Boston Beer company. He discusses some of the mistakes he made along the way too. Good clean fun, Nick offerman
- wdewind 6y ago
  > "Generation Kill" by Evan Wright which was turned into a mini-series on HBO) I haven't read the book but I've seen the miniseries many times, it is one of my favorites. It has a TON of great lessons about how large groups of people organize themselves and how the individuals within those groups behave and why that are very pertinent to tech and management in general.
pjmorris 6y ago
I found 'The Prize', a history of the development of the oil industry, by Daniel Yergin, to be fascinating. Perhaps closer to your request, 'Kitchen Confidential' by Anthony Bourdain comes the closest to describing life in a restaurant kitchen in a very entertaining way. (Source: Was once a dishwasher and cook in a couple places.) If you like Bourdain, his friend, Michael Ruhlman has several books on being, and becoming, a chef.
- huge87 6y ago
  Kitchen Confidential was really fun. The audiobook happens to be narrated by Bourdain, too.
- ghaff 6y ago
  Anthony Sampson's The Seven Sisters about the oil industry was also good although pretty old at this point. It does go into how the powers split things up post-WWI though.
- mikhailfranco 6y ago
  On the kitchen thread, try Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell, which describes his experience as a dishwasher in 1930's Paris. For an interesting study of casual labor in the gig economy for house painters in the 1910's, see The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell,
secfirstmd 6y ago
The Secret Barrister. A little bit UK-centric but a lot of what is mentioned is really true of most modern criminal justice systems.
- noodlesUK 6y ago
  The secret barrister and its sequel, Fake Law, are just fantastic introductions to the British criminal (and civil to an extent) justice system and its current failings, and where improvements can be made. I’d recommend it to anyone, even outside the UK, as so many of its lessons are generally applicable. Further, to a US audience, it might shatter some ingrained beliefs that all justice systems are the same globally (driven largely by tv and movie narratives).
vmurthy 6y ago
Never split the difference : Chris Voss [0] & Start with No : Jim Camp [1] opened my eyes to tactics used by sales/"business" folks when they negotiate with me and provided some tips which help me in my own negotiations. Case in point: A car dealer mentioned to me casually that a car whose MRP is AUD 38800 would never be discounted below 34000. I took it as a psychological "anchor" that had to be explored and negotiated rather than agreed upon without discussion. Started with a random figure of 32349 and ended up with getting the car for 33500 ( given that it was my first negotiation, I think it's a win :-) ) Influence by Cialdini is a timeless classic that helps me appreciate the fascinating world of human psychology [0] https://www.amazon.in/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended-ebook/dp/B018FHCPDO/ref=sr_1_1?crid=B3RBMIE3MSZX&keywords=never+split+the+difference%27+by+chris+voss&qid=1607209738&sprefix=never+split+the+%2Caps%2C418&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.in/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Dep... [1] https://www.amazon.in/Start-No-Negotiating-Tools-That/dp/0609608002/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2BMPOVAGCR1W9&dchild=1&keywords=jim+camp+start+with+no&qid=1607209814&sprefix=jim+camp+%2Caps%2C426&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.in/Start-No-Negotiating-Tools-That/dp/060...
e15ctr0n 6y ago
Save Me the Plums, a memoir by a former editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine, that chronicles the golden age of print media before the Internet turned the world of publishing upside down. https://www.amzn.com/081298238X https://www.amzn.com/081298238X
slimmyjim 6y ago
My favorite genre as well. Found this one riveting and hilarious: Wireless Nation: The Frenzied Launch of the Cellular Revolution by James B Murray. https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Nation-Frenzied-Cellular-Revolution/dp/0738206881/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Wireless+Nation%3A+The+Frenzied+Launch+of+the+Cellular+Revolution&qid=1607212012&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Nation-Frenzied-Cellular-Rev...
cafard 6y ago
Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana is about a way of life long gone, but it is well worth reading. As for the more recent merchant marine, Christopher Buckley's Steaming to Bamboola is very funny, and I suppose fairly accurate. For forest rangers, Norman Maclean's novella "USFS 1919", collected in A River Runs Through It, gives a picture of how it was then. August Fruge, longtime director of the University of California Press, wrote an excellent memoir, A Skeptic Among Scholars. There are many academic novels and memoirs, but I think very well of Alvin Kernan's In Plato's Cave. Also there is Herbert Simon's Models of My Life, which touches on academia and computing.
DavidPeiffer 6y ago
I'm an industrial engineer. The book that got me started on that path was Cheaper By the Dozen, which we listened to on cassette tape on most road trips >2 hours growing up. I was fascinated by the thought of taking a process or procedure and eliminating as much non-value add time as possible, which they did throughout their lives on things like tonsillectomies for their kids. Some impactful books on the whole field include Factory Physics (focusing on material flow through a factory) and The Toyota Way (focusing on lean manufacturing).
- dukeme09 6y ago
  I'm in operations and I also loved "Cheaper by the Dozen" as a kid. Have you ever read, "My Forty Years with Ford" by Charles Sorensen? He was the first COO of Ford and he talks about building the first modern assembly line, dealing with his difficult process engineering problems (for 1910) and creating one of the first continuous improvement programs. I really enjoyed how everything he described is still relevant today for operations and his seemingly intractable problems are now considered simple today.
ghufran_syed 6y ago
"Snapshots from Hell" by Peter Robinson is a great description of an MBA, with some good descriptions about finance and consulting.
billfruit 6y ago
The Right Stuff - Test Pilots Arrowsmith - Sinclair Lewis - Medical Profession McTeague - Frank Norris - Dentistry Two Years Behind the Mast - Dana - Sailor in thr Merchant Marine The Red and the Black - Stendahl - Catholic Clergy The Centurions - Jean Larteguy - Infantry/Special Ops I always suggest reading fiction, it is a good source for lot of incidental knowledge about various aspects of life. Can anyone recommend books/novels on the English legal profession? Thanks.
austincheney 6y ago
The follow suggestions are all novels or non-fiction written as narratives * English rural veterinarian novels - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Herriot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Herriot * Corporate security - The ISC2 CISSP course book https://www.amazon.com/Official-ISC-Guide-CISSP-CBK/dp/1119423341 https://www.amazon.com/Official-ISC-Guide-CISSP-CBK/dp/11194... * Military - Catch 22 by Joseph Heller https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22 * Internal investigations - Airframe by Michael Chriton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airframe_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airframe_(novel)
jkepler 6y ago
For perspective on a veterinary surgeon's work and world, James Herriot wrote eight books , starting with, "If Only They Could Talk" in 1970. [0] To learn what its like to start a non-profit/NGO working to help homeless people, prostitutes and addicts in the streets of Glasgow, Scotland, read "From Whitewashed Stairs to Heaven." The book tells the story of Maureen McKenna, cofounder of Open Door Trust Glasgow.[1] Wendell Berry's written much about farming (among other things). [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Herriot https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Herriot [1] https://www.christianfocus.com/products/855/from-whitewashed-stairs-to-heaven https://www.christianfocus.com/products/855/from-whitewashed...
rograndom 6y ago
"Elements of Poker" by Tommy Angelo How to be better at Poker (and other parts of life) that has nothing to do with what cards you have.
FelipeCortez 6y ago
Not exactly what you’re looking for, but Elements of Typographic Style is an excellent introduction to typography written with so much passion it makes you want to become a typographer. We’re mostly programmers here, but The Soul of a New Machine describes the creation of a computer, which is not something people do a lot these days. Fascinating stuff
AceyMan 6y ago
While it's about the origins of a now much changed industry, Earnest Gann's Fate is the Hunter is an astounding collection of experiences as a professional pilot during the early years of commercial flight. I ran an airline for years and my jaw hit the floor in several parts in this amazing book. Three thumbs up.
deleted 6y ago
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nickff 6y ago
"Ninety Percent of Everything" is a great book about what it's like to work in container shipping. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety_Percent_of_Everything https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety_Percent_of_Everything
orloffm 6y ago
Sorry for this kind of answer, but for Russians I highly recommend the book "Три Еврея", Юрий Мухин. Despite the idiotic name "Three Jews", it's an incredible description of management of a huge steel plant (and life in general around it) in 1980s Soviet Union. Something I'd like to see in a thread like this.
fbcx 6y ago
I feel like I understand nonfiction/business book writing and publishing much better after reading The Scribe Method. Super thorough step-by-step instruicions on creating a successful book. Official free download: https://scribemedia.com/scribe-method-book/ https://scribemedia.com/scribe-method-book/
giantg2 6y ago
Just one thing I would like to point out. Many of the suggestions I've seen here are about interesting books. These may give you insight into part of a profession, but I think we need to remember that these jobs also have boring parts or that the protagonist is exceptional. After all, most people won't read a book about an unremarkable person nor would someone write a book that includes all the boring bits. For example, most police/investigative work involves reading through papers, waiting, minor offenses, and other boring stuff that isn't sufficiently portrayed in media.
LarryMade2 6y ago
Dishwasher: One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States by Pete Jordan. Definitely a different and entertaining read. Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs - This is a short anthology that covers various professions was collected in the 90s. Interesting quick views of different people's work etc.
cafard 6y ago
For a bit of adventure, also Teddy Blue Abbot We Pointed Them North about the cattle drives of the late 19th Century, and Ivan Doig's In This House of Sky, about growing up as a sheep rancher's son in Montana, and about his father's upbringing and work.
chrisMyzel 6y ago
I'm a software dev and run my own company but would love to run a japanese noodle restaurant one day (I'm caucasian haha). Any good recomdtns?
macando 6y ago
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10569.On_Writing https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10569.On_Writing

154 points by unklefolk 6y ago

mellosouls 6y ago

This is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay Memoirs of a Doctor in the UK. Very funny at times and moving as well. Useful insights for outsiders into the medical profession and a light read. NHS based, but presumably relevant to other health systems and countries. https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_Going_to_Hurt https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_Going_to_Hurt

statusanxiety 6y ago

Down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell is an excellent insight into the life of a parisian dishwasher in the 1920s. Its also a great exploration of the lives of the working class in that time period. Just Kids by Patti Smith is a beautiful look into the life of a poet and artist.

ju-st 6y ago

Uncommon Carriers https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OA64LQ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OA64LQ "a collection of six excursions across the United States in various vehicles: coal train; barge-pushing towboat; a canoe on the Concord and Merrimack River, following John and Henry Thoreau's excursion in August, 1839; a UPS sorting station and truck; a five-axle, sixty-five foot, eighteen-wheel chemical tanker. " (quote from an Amazon review)

klenwell 6y ago

Not exactly what you asked for but something in a similar vein are profession-specific Reddit forms. I'm not sure they fully qualify as professions but I've found these two regularly odd and insightful: - https://old.reddit.com/r/InstacartShoppers/ https://old.reddit.com/r/InstacartShoppers/ - https://old.reddit.com/r/McDonaldsEmployees/ https://old.reddit.com/r/McDonaldsEmployees/ I guess you could also add these to the list: - https://old.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/ https://old.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/ - https://old.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/ https://old.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/ I'm always looking out for curious little subreddits like these that give you a glimpse into a different way of living or working. If anyone has any other recommendations, please share.

Shared404 6y ago
Also https://old.reddit.com/r/kitchenconfidential https://old.reddit.com/r/kitchenconfidential
dryd 6y ago
https://old.reddit.com/r/Accounting/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Accounting/
blisse 6y ago
I enjoy https://reddit.com/r/starbucks/ https://reddit.com/r/starbucks/ since it's just baristas being angry lol

swyx 6y ago

Ex finance guy here - Liar's Poker for 1980s Wall Street, When Genius Failed for 1990s, More Money Than God for 2000s, Flash Boys for 2010s - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liar%27s_Poker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liar%27s_Poker - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Genius_Failed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Genius_Failed - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Money_Than_God https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Money_Than_God - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Boys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Boys obviously these do not represent all of finance but its a nice decade-by-decade recap of talking points, i figured i'd try to do it and was surprised how nicely it broke out

cambalache 6y ago
Those are all good recommendations, but if anything tech/SV is resembling every day more and more to 1980s WS.
- swyx 6y ago
  yep. i'm merely one of many finance bros that escaped to tech. if you work in martech, then you absolutely outpaced wallstreet haha.
- ghaff 6y ago
  I think it's different in that you do have some subset of people who think they're doing things for the common good, and some actually are, but... "Greed is good" Gordon Gecko
  - cambalache 6y ago
    Lots of finance people, rightly or wrongly justify their work as giving a valuable service to humanity: From "providing liquidity" to "absorbing risk" and "helping your pension grow" the list of supposed goods provided by finance is very long.
    - ghaff 6y ago
      And they're not entirely wrong. Although there are benefits provided by other industries on net (probably including tech) that are greater.

blackgirldev 6y ago

Working, by Studs Terkel https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_(Terkel_book) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_(Terkel_book)

NothingIsReal 6y ago

1. How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success in Selling, Bettger A good intro to sales, and a very good book on self-development. 2. When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management, Lowenstein A story about LTCM, one of the early and most notorious "quant" hedge funds. A cheeky nod to intellectualism. 3. Liar's Poker, Lewis Investment banking through a trader's eyes. Yes, the absurdity is only partly dramatized. 4. Pimp: The Story of My Life, Iceberg Slim No pithy blurb can summarize this; read it if you want a look into human nature. 5. The Six-Month Fix: Adventures in Rescuing Failing Companies, Sutton Written by a friend and a mentor; may he rest. Gives you a sobering account of what really goes behind the scenes of many companies, along with their management. Apologies; I know this list isn't focused on more humbling professions like the examples you gave.

ghaff 6y ago

Historical but Boys on the Bus by Timothy Crouse on old-style political journalism. (Although I imagine a lot is still true.) There's a lot about journalism, photojournalism, and so forth (perhaps unsurprisingly) although so much has changed in the past 10-20 years it probably isn't that relevant to those professions today.

potions 6y ago

Diary of a Very Bad Year: Confessions of an Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager is really entertaining and lucid if you are interested in a 'casual'(in tone) explanation of the global financial crisis. It's a set of interviews with "n+1 magazine" from the course of the year later expanded and collated.

shortandsweet 6y ago

Nine pints by Rose George. While not entirely about leechers, a chapter is dedicated to the raising and using of leeches in modern medicine. Very fascinating.

legitster 6y ago

"First Do No Harm" - A memoir from a brain surgeon.

dangets 6y ago
I'll plug 'When Breath Becomes Air', also for brain surgeon.
- randcraw 6y ago
  And I'll add Atul Gawande's “Better” and “Complications” on general surgery in particular and medicine in general.
rscho 6y ago
For something a touch more down to earth regarding medicine: House of God, by Samuel Shem. It might be difficult to believe, but this book is very realistic. Much more so than many other insufferable navel-gazing books about medical work taking grand philosophical stances.

Tade0 6y ago

Whispers: The Voices of Paranoia, Ronald K. Siegel A collection of stories showing some of the ugly parts of being a psychopharmacologist, based on the author's own experiences.

paulgb 6y ago

> what is it like to work on a container ship You might like The Shipping Man by Matthew McCleery. It's fiction, but the author is in the shipping financing industry and the book is a fun way to learn about (a caricaturized version of) that world.

embit 6y ago

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat By neurologist Oliver Sacks is a great book describing some of his very interesting cases. More importantly, his writing style is brilliant.

varenc 6y ago

Check out “Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs” It’s fascinating and covers a very wide range of professions. Sorta of like a more modern remake of Stud Terkel’s 1974 book “Working”

fluxic 6y ago

Editing: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg >>> Max Perkins was the editor of Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, F Scott Fitzgerald, and other famous 20th century writers. Great, great, book. Bartending: Cosmopolitan by Toby Cecchini >>> Very well-written memoir of a bartender in New York in the late 1980s. He invented the Cosmo in NYC while working at the Odeon — on a lark, without thinking much of it. The drink took off, but I think he's still a working bartender in NYC. Cooking: Kitchen Confidential by Bourdain Painting: Interviews with Francis Bacon by David Sylvester Music: Meet me in the Bathroom by Lizzy Goodman Tech: Chaos Monkeys by AGM And seconding swyx's recommendations for all things Michael Lewis, who can spin a good yarn about any profession — whether it's baseball managers, junk bond salesmen, or high frequency traders, etc. I've also picked up lots of good recommendations from this thread https://ask.metafilter.com/243036/Recommend-a-nonfiction-author-who-has-a-style-like-Anthony-Bourdain https://ask.metafilter.com/243036/Recommend-a-nonfiction-aut... (I, too, like "insidery" type business books. I'm currently reading "The Emperor of Scent" about the world of perfume and it's pretty good! Also looking forward to reading "Ninety Percent of Everything" about the shipping industry.)

why5s 6y ago

Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs https://www.amazon.com/Gig-Americans-Talk-About-Their/dp/0609807072 https://www.amazon.com/Gig-Americans-Talk-About-Their/dp/060... It's basically a series of interviews with people across various industries talking about their jobs. Not exactly "memoir"-style but more of an anthology. Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber https://www.amazon.com/Bullshit-Jobs-Theory-David-Graeber/dp/1501143336/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=bullshit+jobs&qid=1607207865&s=books&sr=1-1 https://www.amazon.com/Bullshit-Jobs-Theory-David-Graeber/dp... A personal favorite that I read alongside the first recommendation. Just puts a lot of things in perspective with respect to finding meaningful work.

shicky 6y ago
With bullshit jobs, could you expand on finding meaningful work? It's something that has eaten me up the last while (non meaningful work and being unsure what direction to head to find it) I've searched a few reviews of the book but largely seemed to focus on how many jobs are pointless rather than finding non pointless stuff

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Jugurtha 6y ago

Here's a reply[0] to a question that asked about directory structure. Ignore the programming/technology part. Military books (such as "One Bullet Away" by Nathaniel Fick or "Generation Kill" by Evan Wright which was turned into a mini-series on HBO). Field manuals can be interesting and you can learn a lot from them. Knot books. "Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War" by Robert Gates is interesting. "The Art of Intelligence", by Henry Crumpton. "Diplomacy" by Henry Kissinger is an interesting read. It starts with the balance of power in Europe, raison d'état, Richelieu, "U.S. exceptionalism". It is well written. - [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17593922 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17593922

wmoser 6y ago
Since you called out working on a container ship, a lot of these have a nautical bent but that’s an area of my personal interest as well. Looking for a ship, John McPhee, Book about a sailor looking for work and eventually catching a ship. Born A Crime, Trevor Noah, not about another career but Apertheid South Africa, I enjoyed it and wished I would have read it before traveling through S.A. For work. Don’t Tell mum I work on the rigs, she thinks I’m a piano player in a whorehouse, by Paul Carter, read this one awhile ago but it’s about an oil well driller. The industry has changed quite a bit since this book was written but I remember really enjoying it. Salvage: a personal odyssey by Ian Tew. I enjoyed this book about a a salvage master out of Singapore The ride of a lifetime by Robert Iger, book about Iger’s journey to being CEO of Walt Disney Company. A bit of insight to what the company executives are doing/ supposed to be doing? Quench Your Own Thirst, Jim Koch, the founder of the Boston Beer company. He discusses some of the mistakes he made along the way too. Good clean fun, Nick offerman
wdewind 6y ago
> "Generation Kill" by Evan Wright which was turned into a mini-series on HBO) I haven't read the book but I've seen the miniseries many times, it is one of my favorites. It has a TON of great lessons about how large groups of people organize themselves and how the individuals within those groups behave and why that are very pertinent to tech and management in general.

pjmorris 6y ago

I found 'The Prize', a history of the development of the oil industry, by Daniel Yergin, to be fascinating. Perhaps closer to your request, 'Kitchen Confidential' by Anthony Bourdain comes the closest to describing life in a restaurant kitchen in a very entertaining way. (Source: Was once a dishwasher and cook in a couple places.) If you like Bourdain, his friend, Michael Ruhlman has several books on being, and becoming, a chef.

huge87 6y ago
Kitchen Confidential was really fun. The audiobook happens to be narrated by Bourdain, too.
ghaff 6y ago
Anthony Sampson's The Seven Sisters about the oil industry was also good although pretty old at this point. It does go into how the powers split things up post-WWI though.
mikhailfranco 6y ago
On the kitchen thread, try Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell, which describes his experience as a dishwasher in 1930's Paris. For an interesting study of casual labor in the gig economy for house painters in the 1910's, see The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell,

secfirstmd 6y ago

The Secret Barrister. A little bit UK-centric but a lot of what is mentioned is really true of most modern criminal justice systems.

noodlesUK 6y ago
The secret barrister and its sequel, Fake Law, are just fantastic introductions to the British criminal (and civil to an extent) justice system and its current failings, and where improvements can be made. I’d recommend it to anyone, even outside the UK, as so many of its lessons are generally applicable. Further, to a US audience, it might shatter some ingrained beliefs that all justice systems are the same globally (driven largely by tv and movie narratives).

vmurthy 6y ago

Never split the difference : Chris Voss [0] & Start with No : Jim Camp [1] opened my eyes to tactics used by sales/"business" folks when they negotiate with me and provided some tips which help me in my own negotiations. Case in point: A car dealer mentioned to me casually that a car whose MRP is AUD 38800 would never be discounted below 34000. I took it as a psychological "anchor" that had to be explored and negotiated rather than agreed upon without discussion. Started with a random figure of 32349 and ended up with getting the car for 33500 ( given that it was my first negotiation, I think it's a win :-) ) Influence by Cialdini is a timeless classic that helps me appreciate the fascinating world of human psychology [0] https://www.amazon.in/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended-ebook/dp/B018FHCPDO/ref=sr_1_1?crid=B3RBMIE3MSZX&keywords=never+split+the+difference%27+by+chris+voss&qid=1607209738&sprefix=never+split+the+%2Caps%2C418&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.in/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Dep... [1] https://www.amazon.in/Start-No-Negotiating-Tools-That/dp/0609608002/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2BMPOVAGCR1W9&dchild=1&keywords=jim+camp+start+with+no&qid=1607209814&sprefix=jim+camp+%2Caps%2C426&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.in/Start-No-Negotiating-Tools-That/dp/060...

e15ctr0n 6y ago

Save Me the Plums, a memoir by a former editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine, that chronicles the golden age of print media before the Internet turned the world of publishing upside down. https://www.amzn.com/081298238X https://www.amzn.com/081298238X

slimmyjim 6y ago

My favorite genre as well. Found this one riveting and hilarious: Wireless Nation: The Frenzied Launch of the Cellular Revolution by James B Murray. https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Nation-Frenzied-Cellular-Revolution/dp/0738206881/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Wireless+Nation%3A+The+Frenzied+Launch+of+the+Cellular+Revolution&qid=1607212012&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Nation-Frenzied-Cellular-Rev...

cafard 6y ago

Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana is about a way of life long gone, but it is well worth reading. As for the more recent merchant marine, Christopher Buckley's Steaming to Bamboola is very funny, and I suppose fairly accurate. For forest rangers, Norman Maclean's novella "USFS 1919", collected in A River Runs Through It, gives a picture of how it was then. August Fruge, longtime director of the University of California Press, wrote an excellent memoir, A Skeptic Among Scholars. There are many academic novels and memoirs, but I think very well of Alvin Kernan's In Plato's Cave. Also there is Herbert Simon's Models of My Life, which touches on academia and computing.

DavidPeiffer 6y ago

I'm an industrial engineer. The book that got me started on that path was Cheaper By the Dozen, which we listened to on cassette tape on most road trips >2 hours growing up. I was fascinated by the thought of taking a process or procedure and eliminating as much non-value add time as possible, which they did throughout their lives on things like tonsillectomies for their kids. Some impactful books on the whole field include Factory Physics (focusing on material flow through a factory) and The Toyota Way (focusing on lean manufacturing).

dukeme09 6y ago
I'm in operations and I also loved "Cheaper by the Dozen" as a kid. Have you ever read, "My Forty Years with Ford" by Charles Sorensen? He was the first COO of Ford and he talks about building the first modern assembly line, dealing with his difficult process engineering problems (for 1910) and creating one of the first continuous improvement programs. I really enjoyed how everything he described is still relevant today for operations and his seemingly intractable problems are now considered simple today.

ghufran_syed 6y ago

"Snapshots from Hell" by Peter Robinson is a great description of an MBA, with some good descriptions about finance and consulting.

billfruit 6y ago

The Right Stuff - Test Pilots Arrowsmith - Sinclair Lewis - Medical Profession McTeague - Frank Norris - Dentistry Two Years Behind the Mast - Dana - Sailor in thr Merchant Marine The Red and the Black - Stendahl - Catholic Clergy The Centurions - Jean Larteguy - Infantry/Special Ops I always suggest reading fiction, it is a good source for lot of incidental knowledge about various aspects of life. Can anyone recommend books/novels on the English legal profession? Thanks.

austincheney 6y ago

The follow suggestions are all novels or non-fiction written as narratives * English rural veterinarian novels - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Herriot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Herriot * Corporate security - The ISC2 CISSP course book https://www.amazon.com/Official-ISC-Guide-CISSP-CBK/dp/1119423341 https://www.amazon.com/Official-ISC-Guide-CISSP-CBK/dp/11194... * Military - Catch 22 by Joseph Heller https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22 * Internal investigations - Airframe by Michael Chriton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airframe_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airframe_(novel)

jkepler 6y ago

For perspective on a veterinary surgeon's work and world, James Herriot wrote eight books , starting with, "If Only They Could Talk" in 1970. [0] To learn what its like to start a non-profit/NGO working to help homeless people, prostitutes and addicts in the streets of Glasgow, Scotland, read "From Whitewashed Stairs to Heaven." The book tells the story of Maureen McKenna, cofounder of Open Door Trust Glasgow.[1] Wendell Berry's written much about farming (among other things). [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Herriot https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Herriot [1] https://www.christianfocus.com/products/855/from-whitewashed-stairs-to-heaven https://www.christianfocus.com/products/855/from-whitewashed...

rograndom 6y ago

"Elements of Poker" by Tommy Angelo How to be better at Poker (and other parts of life) that has nothing to do with what cards you have.

FelipeCortez 6y ago

Not exactly what you’re looking for, but Elements of Typographic Style is an excellent introduction to typography written with so much passion it makes you want to become a typographer. We’re mostly programmers here, but The Soul of a New Machine describes the creation of a computer, which is not something people do a lot these days. Fascinating stuff

AceyMan 6y ago

While it's about the origins of a now much changed industry, Earnest Gann's Fate is the Hunter is an astounding collection of experiences as a professional pilot during the early years of commercial flight. I ran an airline for years and my jaw hit the floor in several parts in this amazing book. Three thumbs up.

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nickff 6y ago

"Ninety Percent of Everything" is a great book about what it's like to work in container shipping. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety_Percent_of_Everything https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety_Percent_of_Everything

orloffm 6y ago

Sorry for this kind of answer, but for Russians I highly recommend the book "Три Еврея", Юрий Мухин. Despite the idiotic name "Three Jews", it's an incredible description of management of a huge steel plant (and life in general around it) in 1980s Soviet Union. Something I'd like to see in a thread like this.

fbcx 6y ago

I feel like I understand nonfiction/business book writing and publishing much better after reading The Scribe Method. Super thorough step-by-step instruicions on creating a successful book. Official free download: https://scribemedia.com/scribe-method-book/ https://scribemedia.com/scribe-method-book/

giantg2 6y ago

Just one thing I would like to point out. Many of the suggestions I've seen here are about interesting books. These may give you insight into part of a profession, but I think we need to remember that these jobs also have boring parts or that the protagonist is exceptional. After all, most people won't read a book about an unremarkable person nor would someone write a book that includes all the boring bits. For example, most police/investigative work involves reading through papers, waiting, minor offenses, and other boring stuff that isn't sufficiently portrayed in media.

LarryMade2 6y ago

Dishwasher: One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States by Pete Jordan. Definitely a different and entertaining read. Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs - This is a short anthology that covers various professions was collected in the 90s. Interesting quick views of different people's work etc.

cafard 6y ago

For a bit of adventure, also Teddy Blue Abbot We Pointed Them North about the cattle drives of the late 19th Century, and Ivan Doig's In This House of Sky, about growing up as a sheep rancher's son in Montana, and about his father's upbringing and work.

chrisMyzel 6y ago

I'm a software dev and run my own company but would love to run a japanese noodle restaurant one day (I'm caucasian haha). Any good recomdtns?

macando 6y ago

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10569.On_Writing https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10569.On_Writing