5 ms·

Reading or recently finished: The Book of the New Sun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_New_Sun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_New_Su

Reading or recently finished: The Book of the New Sun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_New_Sun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_New_Sun Influence: Science and Practice: http://www.amazon.com/Influence-Practice-Robert-B-Cialdini/dp/0205609996 http://www.amazon.com/Influence-Practice-Robert-B-Cialdini/d... Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: http://www.amazon.com/Self-Editing-Fiction-Writers-Second-Yourself/dp/0060545690/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323492182&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/Self-Editing-Fiction-Writers-Second-Yo... Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_M... Wraeththu: http://www.amazon.com/Wraeththu-Storm-Constantine/dp/0312890001 http://www.amazon.com/Wraeththu-Storm-Constantine/dp/0312890...

gruseom 15y ago
Cialdini is classic. It's the only science book I've stayed up all night to finish, it's such a page turner. Plus I remember astonishingly more of it than I do of most books. His anecdotes really help with that. (It was a different edition though.)
- tptacek 15y ago
  I read Cialdini years ago because Joel Spolsky recommended it here: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/navLinks/fog0000000262.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/navLinks/fog0000000262.html From that list, I also highly recommend: * Peopleware (get your cofounders to read it too) * Godel Escher Bach * A Pattern Language (but don't bother reading it straight through) * Growing A Business
  - gruseom 15y ago
    I love Pattern Language and use ideas from it all the time. It, and Alexander, are much more interesting than the mechanistic stuff that software people reduced him to. I think Chris Alexander is one of those rare cases where it's possible to see that an individual is right and an entire field is wrong. Growing a Business I read because you recommended it on HN a few years ago! Peopleware I remember as being pretty enlightened in spirit and ahead of its time for software projects, but one of those once-you-get-it-you-get-it things. Also, they totally made shit up in that book (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=333694 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=333694). GEB, meh. Hofstadter always struck me as the pseudo-profound type. Perhaps I am unfair.
    - akkartik 15y ago
      Wow, first criticism I've ever heard of GEB. Finally got off my ass and purchased Pattern Language. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195019199 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195019199, right?)
      - gruseom 15y ago
        That's the one. I hope you enjoy thumbing through it. The first thing from that book that caught my attention was his point about rooms feeling more alive when they have light coming in on two different sides. I've noticed that, or the lack of it, in just about every room ever since. Hofstadter? It's always the same grad-students-drinking-beer mentality: hey man, this thing is totally like that other thing. The connections seem profound, but are not, because they don't have deep roots in anything. The real tell is that nothing of great value ever comes out of this way of doing business (I mean this style, not H's work specifically). It's an intellectual sugar rush. But again, perhaps I am unfair.
    - tptacek 15y ago
      I'm not as rigorous as you are; the idea that Demarco and Lister made up historical anecdotes in the book doesn't perturb me too much, because the value of the book isn't so much prescriptive ("break your company into tiny teams and let them each pick a far-flung cool-looking skunkworks office") --- it's more that it provides a new way of looking at how your company is organized. On the other hand, I didn't "get" Surfer Rosa for like a year after I bought it, because by the time I had (in the early 90's) almost all the music I listened to was more or less cribbed from Pixies songs. Maybe the same thing happened with Peopleware, where pretty much every blog post we read about dev teams expresses a sentiment traceable to some part of Peopleware. In my defense with GEB: I didn't read it because Joel Spolsky told me to, I read it because a girlfriend did. A similar logic had me pretending to enjoy Faulkner. My take on Hofstadter may be oddly colored. Also: I haven't read any of his other books and am not a Lisper, so he's had fewer opportunities to annoy me.
      - gruseom 15y ago
        Oh, the making shit up part doesn't perturb me (well, maybe a little) - I just think it's worth mentioning. Your Pixies analogy is very clever. If Peopleware is the Pixies then maybe Jerry Weinberg would be the Velvets? Maybe not. The Velvets kind of stand on their own pretty well. Maybe the MC5. There's a band I never got, though they were pretty influential pre-punk. (My point is that Weinberg's early stuff on human factors in software -- Psychology of Computer Programming -- was seminal, but not particularly readable now.)

gruseom 15y ago

Cialdini is classic. It's the only science book I've stayed up all night to finish, it's such a page turner. Plus I remember astonishingly more of it than I do of most books. His anecdotes really help with that. (It was a different edition though.)

tptacek 15y ago
I read Cialdini years ago because Joel Spolsky recommended it here: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/navLinks/fog0000000262.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/navLinks/fog0000000262.html From that list, I also highly recommend: * Peopleware (get your cofounders to read it too) * Godel Escher Bach * A Pattern Language (but don't bother reading it straight through) * Growing A Business
- gruseom 15y ago
  I love Pattern Language and use ideas from it all the time. It, and Alexander, are much more interesting than the mechanistic stuff that software people reduced him to. I think Chris Alexander is one of those rare cases where it's possible to see that an individual is right and an entire field is wrong. Growing a Business I read because you recommended it on HN a few years ago! Peopleware I remember as being pretty enlightened in spirit and ahead of its time for software projects, but one of those once-you-get-it-you-get-it things. Also, they totally made shit up in that book (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=333694 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=333694). GEB, meh. Hofstadter always struck me as the pseudo-profound type. Perhaps I am unfair.
  - akkartik 15y ago
    Wow, first criticism I've ever heard of GEB. Finally got off my ass and purchased Pattern Language. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195019199 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195019199, right?)
    - gruseom 15y ago
      That's the one. I hope you enjoy thumbing through it. The first thing from that book that caught my attention was his point about rooms feeling more alive when they have light coming in on two different sides. I've noticed that, or the lack of it, in just about every room ever since. Hofstadter? It's always the same grad-students-drinking-beer mentality: hey man, this thing is totally like that other thing. The connections seem profound, but are not, because they don't have deep roots in anything. The real tell is that nothing of great value ever comes out of this way of doing business (I mean this style, not H's work specifically). It's an intellectual sugar rush. But again, perhaps I am unfair.
  - tptacek 15y ago
    I'm not as rigorous as you are; the idea that Demarco and Lister made up historical anecdotes in the book doesn't perturb me too much, because the value of the book isn't so much prescriptive ("break your company into tiny teams and let them each pick a far-flung cool-looking skunkworks office") --- it's more that it provides a new way of looking at how your company is organized. On the other hand, I didn't "get" Surfer Rosa for like a year after I bought it, because by the time I had (in the early 90's) almost all the music I listened to was more or less cribbed from Pixies songs. Maybe the same thing happened with Peopleware, where pretty much every blog post we read about dev teams expresses a sentiment traceable to some part of Peopleware. In my defense with GEB: I didn't read it because Joel Spolsky told me to, I read it because a girlfriend did. A similar logic had me pretending to enjoy Faulkner. My take on Hofstadter may be oddly colored. Also: I haven't read any of his other books and am not a Lisper, so he's had fewer opportunities to annoy me.
    - gruseom 15y ago
      Oh, the making shit up part doesn't perturb me (well, maybe a little) - I just think it's worth mentioning. Your Pixies analogy is very clever. If Peopleware is the Pixies then maybe Jerry Weinberg would be the Velvets? Maybe not. The Velvets kind of stand on their own pretty well. Maybe the MC5. There's a band I never got, though they were pretty influential pre-punk. (My point is that Weinberg's early stuff on human factors in software -- Psychology of Computer Programming -- was seminal, but not particularly readable now.)