3 ms·

Ask HN: What's a programming book that you wish you read earlier in your career?

tomaszs 6y ago
When I was in the middle school there was a new series of books about programming video games. There was not too much resources than to learn from about it. I was visiting the bookstore several times to read at least some pages. But since it was several books, each over 1000 pages long, i had to buy them to read in full. I didn't find a way to earn money for these books, and eventually lacked the knowledge to pursuit the dream of making video games. Now i am over 30 years old, and regret I didn't read these books than. However, if it comes to my dev career, i wished I have read earlier books about these topics: - effective communication - leadership - getting things done, the book - design - user experience - psychological books It does not mean classical, technical and craft books are not important. I have red just a lot of these when I was young. But these above would help me shape my career in a better way, enjoy it more and focus on the important stuff.
a3n 6y ago
The Stevens Unix and networking books. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Richard_Stevens https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Richard_Stevens
Simulacrum0 6y ago
As disaffected as it is, i think Neal Stepheson's "Diamond Age" has programming book "backstory" that carries weight many years later...sort of a 3rd decade insight class of wisdom...
- drakenot 6y ago
  Could you elaborate on what kind of wisdom you gleaned from it? I've read it and enjoyed it, but wondering what insights you got from it.
muzani 6y ago
The Pragmatic Programmer. It feels like a textbook introduction to the software engineering field. Not the code part, but more the engineering parts.
brogrammer2019 6y ago
Python Notes for Professionals book would have been perfect five years ago when I started my programming career Link: https://books.goalkicker.com/PythonBook https://books.goalkicker.com/PythonBook
rurban 6y ago
SICP and the Stevens and Tanenbaum books.
terse_malvolio 6y ago
Clean Code

When I was in the middle school there was a new series of books about programming video games. There was not too much resources than to learn from about it. I was visiting the bookstore several times to read at least some pages. But since it was several books, each over 1000 pages long, i had to buy them to read in full. I didn't find a way to earn money for these books, and eventually lacked the knowledge to pursuit the dream of making video games. Now i am over 30 years old, and regret I didn't read these books than. However, if it comes to my dev career, i wished I have read earlier books about these topics: - effective communication - leadership - getting things done, the book - design - user experience - psychological books It does not mean classical, technical and craft books are not important. I have red just a lot of these when I was young. But these above would help me shape my career in a better way, enjoy it more and focus on the important stuff.

a3n 6y ago

The Stevens Unix and networking books. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Richard_Stevens https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Richard_Stevens

Simulacrum0 6y ago

As disaffected as it is, i think Neal Stepheson's "Diamond Age" has programming book "backstory" that carries weight many years later...sort of a 3rd decade insight class of wisdom...

drakenot 6y ago
Could you elaborate on what kind of wisdom you gleaned from it? I've read it and enjoyed it, but wondering what insights you got from it.

muzani 6y ago

The Pragmatic Programmer. It feels like a textbook introduction to the software engineering field. Not the code part, but more the engineering parts.

brogrammer2019 6y ago

Python Notes for Professionals book would have been perfect five years ago when I started my programming career Link: https://books.goalkicker.com/PythonBook https://books.goalkicker.com/PythonBook

rurban 6y ago

SICP and the Stevens and Tanenbaum books.

terse_malvolio 6y ago

Clean Code