7 ms·

Hacking Happy

22 points by whit537 14y ago

xentac 14y ago
This book is by a programmer, for programmers, to help them quantify their happiness and take action to improve it, instead of focusing on churning widgets (GTD) or whatever it is you focus on.
- piqufoh 14y ago
  Yeah.. - but why read this over any one of hundreds other books/blogs/articles which make similar claims? Phrases like 'quantifying their happiness' make me sad.
  - xentac 14y ago
    I'm not sure you actually understand my phrase 'quantifying their happiness'. It uses tests derived from The Feeling Good Handbook, Dr. David Burns and Beck Anxiety Inventory, Dr. Aaron Beck to track emotional well being over time. It makes it possible to compare how you feel with various points in the past to track an overall improvement or regression.
    - piqufoh 14y ago
      You're right, I don't understand. And to be honest you're not making me want to very much either.
boothead 14y ago
Anyone who's read it care to share their thoughts? I've got more queued up books than I can handle right now!
- xentac 14y ago
  I helped edit the first 4 chapters. One benefit of the book is it's short. All the information you need is condensed into 150 pages. It starts out being immediately applicable (Chapter 2: Write Tests First), giving you systematic methods to measure various happiness qualities. After that, it helps you define what would make your life happier. From there it talks about specific ways to address the types of problems people run into when trying to improve their happiness. Throughout the whole book, it tries to relate the concepts to programming ideas (testing, specs, debugging, etc). This isn't a general public self-help book, it's specifically for people who program or are technically minded. That's what makes it unique. If I had to knock the book, I'd say that some of the metaphors are stretched a little bit. Overall the concepts map well, but every so often you're kind of like, "huh... yeah, I guess those are the same things..." Edit: Added something negative to say.
dsschnau 14y ago
Has anyone read this book? I can't find any reviews anywhere.
mikegirouard 14y ago
I thought the sidebar was clever: > If you enjoyed a pirated copy of Hacking Happy, compliment the author by: GitTip, Flattr, e-mail, Review
- buchuki 14y ago
  It's published creative commons, so the piracy is legal, even encouraged.
  - reedlaw 14y ago
    CC BY-NC-ND 2.5 says: > You are free: > to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work I would not want to make the word "pirate" synonymous with "copy".
    - kenbellows 14y ago
      Isn't it already, though? From how the media uses it, pirating software/ebooks/etc. is copying without permission, right? So in this case, the use of the word "pirate" is a bit ironic, since it isn't really possible under the CC license, but I would think it is still basically valid.
      - throwaway54-762 14y ago
        Except the CC license is explicit permission to copy. So even under the media's definition of piracy, this is not it.
        kenbellows 14y ago
        Again, the use of "piracy" here is ironic, sarcastic, facetious.... As such, it doesn't really equate "piracy" with "copying" in a general sense, only in the sense used the author of the website. In a general sense, everyone knows it isn't piracy if it's legal.
- laumars 14y ago
jiggy2011 14y ago
OT: Does this title remind anyone of the "happy hackers handbook" or whatever it was called that was widely circulated online in the late 90s? It taught the basics of stuff like telnet , traceroute and how you should choose an ISP that provided you with a "shell account".
- xk_id 14y ago
  man i loved that :) guide to mostly harmless hacking (GTMHH) :D
jessaustin 14y ago
It's silly to provide a "read an excerpt" link that is just the generic intro-to-this-book copy that's approximately reproduced on the page that contains said link. "Hackers like to optimize things." Gee, thanks for that. Excerpts should be meaty: show me what's going on in the third section of chapter 6. I may not understand all the prerequisites, but I can at least judge whether anything is actually happening in this book, before I give you money.
f4stjack 14y ago
I would have bought the book if I could see what was in it. Don't get me wrong, I am not talking about the entire book, even the chapter headlines would work. The exercept is not enough to make me want it. Pity, it sounded interesting...
- ameyp 14y ago
  You can have a look at the TOC here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AGOLLVC http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AGOLLVC ("Click to LOOK INSIDE!")

22 points by whit537 14y ago

This book is by a programmer, for programmers, to help them quantify their happiness and take action to improve it, instead of focusing on churning widgets (GTD) or whatever it is you focus on.

piqufoh 14y ago
Yeah.. - but why read this over any one of hundreds other books/blogs/articles which make similar claims? Phrases like 'quantifying their happiness' make me sad.
- xentac 14y ago
  I'm not sure you actually understand my phrase 'quantifying their happiness'. It uses tests derived from The Feeling Good Handbook, Dr. David Burns and Beck Anxiety Inventory, Dr. Aaron Beck to track emotional well being over time. It makes it possible to compare how you feel with various points in the past to track an overall improvement or regression.
  - piqufoh 14y ago
    You're right, I don't understand. And to be honest you're not making me want to very much either.

boothead 14y ago

Anyone who's read it care to share their thoughts? I've got more queued up books than I can handle right now!

xentac 14y ago
I helped edit the first 4 chapters. One benefit of the book is it's short. All the information you need is condensed into 150 pages. It starts out being immediately applicable (Chapter 2: Write Tests First), giving you systematic methods to measure various happiness qualities. After that, it helps you define what would make your life happier. From there it talks about specific ways to address the types of problems people run into when trying to improve their happiness. Throughout the whole book, it tries to relate the concepts to programming ideas (testing, specs, debugging, etc). This isn't a general public self-help book, it's specifically for people who program or are technically minded. That's what makes it unique. If I had to knock the book, I'd say that some of the metaphors are stretched a little bit. Overall the concepts map well, but every so often you're kind of like, "huh... yeah, I guess those are the same things..." Edit: Added something negative to say.

dsschnau 14y ago

Has anyone read this book? I can't find any reviews anywhere.

mikegirouard 14y ago

I thought the sidebar was clever: > If you enjoyed a pirated copy of Hacking Happy, compliment the author by: GitTip, Flattr, e-mail, Review

buchuki 14y ago
It's published creative commons, so the piracy is legal, even encouraged.
- reedlaw 14y ago
  CC BY-NC-ND 2.5 says: > You are free: > to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work I would not want to make the word "pirate" synonymous with "copy".
  - kenbellows 14y ago
    Isn't it already, though? From how the media uses it, pirating software/ebooks/etc. is copying without permission, right? So in this case, the use of the word "pirate" is a bit ironic, since it isn't really possible under the CC license, but I would think it is still basically valid.
    - throwaway54-762 14y ago
      Except the CC license is explicit permission to copy. So even under the media's definition of piracy, this is not it.
      - kenbellows 14y ago
        Again, the use of "piracy" here is ironic, sarcastic, facetious.... As such, it doesn't really equate "piracy" with "copying" in a general sense, only in the sense used the author of the website. In a general sense, everyone knows it isn't piracy if it's legal.
laumars 14y ago

jiggy2011 14y ago

OT: Does this title remind anyone of the "happy hackers handbook" or whatever it was called that was widely circulated online in the late 90s? It taught the basics of stuff like telnet , traceroute and how you should choose an ISP that provided you with a "shell account".

xk_id 14y ago
man i loved that :) guide to mostly harmless hacking (GTMHH) :D

jessaustin 14y ago

It's silly to provide a "read an excerpt" link that is just the generic intro-to-this-book copy that's approximately reproduced on the page that contains said link. "Hackers like to optimize things." Gee, thanks for that. Excerpts should be meaty: show me what's going on in the third section of chapter 6. I may not understand all the prerequisites, but I can at least judge whether anything is actually happening in this book, before I give you money.

f4stjack 14y ago

I would have bought the book if I could see what was in it. Don't get me wrong, I am not talking about the entire book, even the chapter headlines would work. The exercept is not enough to make me want it. Pity, it sounded interesting...

ameyp 14y ago
You can have a look at the TOC here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AGOLLVC http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AGOLLVC ("Click to LOOK INSIDE!")