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Before spending the last money I had on a coding book, the cashier could see my hesitation and said "don't worry, investing in yourself is never a waste of mone
by ghstcode 4y ago
Before spending the last money I had on a coding book, the cashier could see my hesitation and said "don't worry, investing in yourself is never a waste of money".
It had a profound impact on me.
- nonasktell 4y agoFor anyone reading this and thinking about spending your last 10 bucks on a programming book please use Libgen or a free mooc
- rroot 4y agoIt was an amazing day when I discovered b-ok.
- solatic 4y agoI get the feeling OP bought that book a long, long time ago, long before libgen was ever a thing.
- Otek 4y agoWell yes and no. Spending money on something, especially when you’re short on money, makes you value it more and overall for me this would make it more likely to actually go through that book. But that’s me.
- annyeonghada 4y agoFor me it's totally irrelevant how many money I spent in how much I value something. I have numerous overpriced textbook in my shelf that I've never read, on the other end my libgen textbook are used constantly and got me through university.
- Bakary 4y agoReference books are the one thing it's a good idea to spend money on, because flipping back and forth through a digital copy is still a miserable experience
- deskamess 4y agoIf they can make flipping a finger pinch worth of pages somehow doable that would be killer. Some sort of wide-pinch gesture with a semi transparent overlay of the page you are going to flip to with your current pinch width. A foldable reader with readable panels on each sides when you open it. You can flip pages either way. Pen for annotation if possible. Create/edit your own documents. An icon tap to overlay another document (a note, book page, research paper) so you can add to it or copy from it to the underlying panel. A reader mode (distraction free) when simply reading. A document mode when you are doing something that requires writing (including simple annotations). I like books and flipping through them. However if you can blend a book reader with a great note taker that would be ideal.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- codexjourneys 4y agoFunny enough VCRs had this decades ago, the double-fast-forward skipped forward a few minutes. Why e-readers can't do this with a similar symbol to skip forward 25 pages is a mystery to me.
- nowherebeen 4y agoAlso library suggestions are great too if you can wait a few months. I usually suggest a bunch of books not just for me, but other people that might be on the same career path as me.
- ornornor 4y agoOr even your local library
- wellthisisgreat 4y agoIdk I got a grasp on programming because I spent a summer in the library with books on programming and a hard rule of not leaving for even a coffee until i have done at least a full chapter and all exercises. I kept the phone turned off and only touched the laptop once I was ready for exercises and after 2-3 hours was too terrified to lose focus if I didn’t go straight into code. Would have never happened with MOOC, as there would have been all kinds of drifting away. I owe my ability to hyper focus to that time
- tomcam 4y agoWait where are you getting programming books for $10?
- picsao 4y ago
- pmoriarty 4y agoI've bought thousands of books that I never read... so... yeah, that was a waste of money. I presume you did better with your investment.
- CamperBob2 4y agoThen again, the most valuable book in the world isn't the Gutenberg Bible or a first folio of Shakespeare or a handwritten draft of Principia. It's the one you need at 2 AM on a Sunday morning but don't have on your shelf.
- XCSme 4y agoThis sounds like a great ad for Audible.
- swyx 4y agoi mean, the cashier also had a vested interest in selling you books and no qualms about taking the last money you had
- sanjayio 4y agoCould be an employee/non-shareholder. It sounds like this is always good advice though unless youre on your last penny. The cashier didn’t know that though.
- abustamam 4y agoA personal finance author I follow (Ramit Sethi) has a book-buying rule where he has unlimited budget when it comes to buying books because if even one line resonates with you / changes your life then it becomes much more valuable than the $10-$20 you spent on the book. I presume it's aimed towards non-fiction books, but some fiction books can profoundly change your perspective on things, and that's worth the investment too. I mostly follow that rule, but with the caveat that I must begin reading/skimming it immediately after I buy it (otherwise it will just end up in the list of books "to be read"). Yes this means that I have an embarrassing amount of started books.