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Given how many comments there are mentioning how lowbrow this list is (which I don't necessarily disagree with), maybe you could offer some suggestions of books

Given how many comments there are mentioning how lowbrow this list is (which I don't necessarily disagree with), maybe you could offer some suggestions of books which have stayed with you? Personally, Godel Escher Bach was pretty formative on my path to becoming a programmer; and The New Jim Crow is a monument to overkill, there are so many statistics that it's impossible to read the entire thing and not come to believe her thesis.

devindotcom 12y ago
It's really more middlebrow than lowbrow. Lowbrow would be fantasy romance, potboiler political thrillers, and other such pulp. This is more like a greatest hits of the 20th century collection, plus a few accessible classics.
VLM 12y ago
Fire in the Lake, which boils down to Ho Chi Minh was the "best" world leader of the 20th century? Best as in most capable and effective and intelligent not necessarily best as in matches my ideal of leadership?
- oldbuzzard 12y ago
  If I was going to pick one Frances Fitzgerald book it would be "Cities on a Hill"[1] not "Fire in the Lake". One explains why our foreign policy fails and the other explains who we believe ourselves to be and how that shapes who we are. McPhee's "Encounter with the Archdruid"[2] and Reisner's "Cadillac Desert"[3] have similar elements... [1] http://www.amazon.com/Cities-Hill-Brilliant-Exploration-Communities/dp/0671645617/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=8-1&keywords=cities+on+the+hill+fitzgerald http://www.amazon.com/Cities-Hill-Brilliant-Exploration-Comm... [2] http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=encounter%20with%20the%20archdruid&index=blended&link_code=qs&sourceid=Mozilla-search&tag=mozilla-20 http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=encounter%20w... [3] http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=encounter%20with%20the%20archdruid&index=blended&link_code=qs&sourceid=Mozilla-search&tag=mozilla-20 http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=encounter%20w...
  - VLM 12y ago
    That looks interesting although I'd have to go back to legacy paper, no legal ebook format. Will put it on my library list.
devindotcom 12y ago
But to respond more directly to your question instead of just sniping... I would say that The Iliad, The Martian Chronicles, The Count of Monte Cristo, Lovecraft, The 15 Decisive Battles in the History of the World, The Stranger, Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, and... well, this list is getting mighty long. But they and a truckload of others put me on the path to literature and the pursuit of knowledge, I think.
redraga 12y ago
I've never read GEB. Can you elaborate on how it helped you become a programmer?
- brian_cloutier 12y ago
  There are many parts to the book, but in one the author goes over formal systems. It was the first time symbol manipulation had been introduced to me as a way of formalizing things like arithmetic. By that point I was already playing with numbers and looking for patterns in the Fibonacci triangle and various series, so being able to play with just symbols was natural and fun, especially if the system is constructed in just the right way so as to have meaning that transcends itself. Later the book meanders through lots of other wonderful topics, but the theme seems to be simple systems which add up to something more than the sum of their parts. There's something about realizing how much depth lies in a handful of simple rules that really clicks and makes you value those rules in some way. After he's primed you with all kinda of these things, he introduces lisp. It took another step or two after GEB for the beauty of lisp to really hit me, but GEB laid the groundwork by fetishizing recursion and simple foundations, among other things.

devindotcom 12y ago

It's really more middlebrow than lowbrow. Lowbrow would be fantasy romance, potboiler political thrillers, and other such pulp. This is more like a greatest hits of the 20th century collection, plus a few accessible classics.

VLM 12y ago

Fire in the Lake, which boils down to Ho Chi Minh was the "best" world leader of the 20th century? Best as in most capable and effective and intelligent not necessarily best as in matches my ideal of leadership?

oldbuzzard 12y ago
If I was going to pick one Frances Fitzgerald book it would be "Cities on a Hill"[1] not "Fire in the Lake". One explains why our foreign policy fails and the other explains who we believe ourselves to be and how that shapes who we are. McPhee's "Encounter with the Archdruid"[2] and Reisner's "Cadillac Desert"[3] have similar elements... [1] http://www.amazon.com/Cities-Hill-Brilliant-Exploration-Communities/dp/0671645617/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=8-1&keywords=cities+on+the+hill+fitzgerald http://www.amazon.com/Cities-Hill-Brilliant-Exploration-Comm... [2] http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=encounter%20with%20the%20archdruid&index=blended&link_code=qs&sourceid=Mozilla-search&tag=mozilla-20 http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=encounter%20w... [3] http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=encounter%20with%20the%20archdruid&index=blended&link_code=qs&sourceid=Mozilla-search&tag=mozilla-20 http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=encounter%20w...
- VLM 12y ago
  That looks interesting although I'd have to go back to legacy paper, no legal ebook format. Will put it on my library list.

devindotcom 12y ago

But to respond more directly to your question instead of just sniping... I would say that The Iliad, The Martian Chronicles, The Count of Monte Cristo, Lovecraft, The 15 Decisive Battles in the History of the World, The Stranger, Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, and... well, this list is getting mighty long. But they and a truckload of others put me on the path to literature and the pursuit of knowledge, I think.

redraga 12y ago

I've never read GEB. Can you elaborate on how it helped you become a programmer?

brian_cloutier 12y ago
There are many parts to the book, but in one the author goes over formal systems. It was the first time symbol manipulation had been introduced to me as a way of formalizing things like arithmetic. By that point I was already playing with numbers and looking for patterns in the Fibonacci triangle and various series, so being able to play with just symbols was natural and fun, especially if the system is constructed in just the right way so as to have meaning that transcends itself. Later the book meanders through lots of other wonderful topics, but the theme seems to be simple systems which add up to something more than the sum of their parts. There's something about realizing how much depth lies in a handful of simple rules that really clicks and makes you value those rules in some way. After he's primed you with all kinda of these things, he introduces lisp. It took another step or two after GEB for the beauty of lisp to really hit me, but GEB laid the groundwork by fetishizing recursion and simple foundations, among other things.