3 ms·

The test of time. I just recently finished reading Skunk Works, and in the last few months seen a few references to it here on HN and and on reddit. It was publ

The test of time. I just recently finished reading Skunk Works, and in the last few months seen a few references to it here on HN and and on reddit. It was published almost 30 years ago and people still talk about it online? That's an easy signal for quality to go by. Counter example: Freakanomics. It did not pass. Even though everyone was so hyped about it at the time. Too bad we don't have a time traveller hanging around to give recommendations.

muzani 3y ago
I'm not sure I agree with this. I still quote things I learned from Freakonomics - the babysitter thing, the prostitution thing, abortions, and the MBA gangster thing for example. Maybe it fell out because it wasn't a primary source, people who remember the stories just look it up and share the story directly. My favorite book that failed the test of time is The Startup Owner's Manual, Bob Dorf and Steve Blank (2012). It's pretty amazing, literally a checklist on how to build a startup. It might be why it's not popular. It smells like a textbook. It takes all the mystery out of building startups - people want to know that they failed because they were unlucky, not because they didn't follow a checklist. The original TDD by Example (2000) is great too, but now there's a million TDD books and consultants. Many of these have never read the original. It was meant to be easy, for dumb people who can't code better. There's a little guide at the end of the book for when you get stuck on these things. Clean Code (2008) is still making the rounds, and I don't think anyone understood it. I ask people why they make one line functions and they quote the book. It seems more popular as a way to justify bad code rather than being best practice.
- drBonkers 3y ago
  > The original TDD by Example (2000) is great too By Kent Beck, right? [1] https://www.amazon.com/Test-Driven-Development-Kent-Beck/dp/0321146530?nodl=1&dplnkId=fe1e1f75-db2b-460a-911d-b59ff346aac1 https://www.amazon.com/Test-Driven-Development-Kent-Beck/dp/...
  - muzani 3y ago
    Yep, Kent Beck. I might have the year off, just pulled it off Google.
jvans 3y ago
Nassim Taleb would agree with this. I forget which of his books he talks about this in but he gave the general recommendation to only read books more than 20 years old, because by then it's stood as a valuable book for so long that it's worth it.

muzani 3y ago

I'm not sure I agree with this. I still quote things I learned from Freakonomics - the babysitter thing, the prostitution thing, abortions, and the MBA gangster thing for example. Maybe it fell out because it wasn't a primary source, people who remember the stories just look it up and share the story directly. My favorite book that failed the test of time is The Startup Owner's Manual, Bob Dorf and Steve Blank (2012). It's pretty amazing, literally a checklist on how to build a startup. It might be why it's not popular. It smells like a textbook. It takes all the mystery out of building startups - people want to know that they failed because they were unlucky, not because they didn't follow a checklist. The original TDD by Example (2000) is great too, but now there's a million TDD books and consultants. Many of these have never read the original. It was meant to be easy, for dumb people who can't code better. There's a little guide at the end of the book for when you get stuck on these things. Clean Code (2008) is still making the rounds, and I don't think anyone understood it. I ask people why they make one line functions and they quote the book. It seems more popular as a way to justify bad code rather than being best practice.

drBonkers 3y ago
> The original TDD by Example (2000) is great too By Kent Beck, right? [1] https://www.amazon.com/Test-Driven-Development-Kent-Beck/dp/0321146530?nodl=1&dplnkId=fe1e1f75-db2b-460a-911d-b59ff346aac1 https://www.amazon.com/Test-Driven-Development-Kent-Beck/dp/...
- muzani 3y ago
  Yep, Kent Beck. I might have the year off, just pulled it off Google.

jvans 3y ago

Nassim Taleb would agree with this. I forget which of his books he talks about this in but he gave the general recommendation to only read books more than 20 years old, because by then it's stood as a valuable book for so long that it's worth it.