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Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are available for free?
I recently stumbled across a link in another thread to "Economics in One Lesson" and thought it was incredibly interesting.
https://mises.org/sites/default/files/Economics%20in%20One%20Lesson_2.pdf
What are some other interesting reads—whether PDF, website, doc, etc—that are freely available?
One of my favorites that I find thought-provoking is the "Procedural Content Generation in Games" book (http://pcgbook.com/).
- iheredia 11y agoThe Nature of Code is one of my favorites free reads http://natureofcode.com/book/ http://natureofcode.com/book/ It addresses topics from physics and math, and how to apply them to your code to make it more natural
- nilkn 11y agoI love "Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces": http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/ http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/ Really useful book and really accessible (both because it's available for free and also because it's written with a lot of skill and friendliness towards the reader). I recommend it in particular to those who for whatever reason never took an operating systems class (e.g., you were self-taught or didn't major in CS). This book will really demystify a lot of stuff for you without overwhelming you at the same time.
- gshrikant 11y agoI second this recommendation. Not being a CS major I didn't take an OS course so I worked through the first part of the OSTEP book and found it to be very well-written and much less intimidating. I haven't finished reading it entirely yet and didn't do any of the labs but I liked the big picture approach it took to OS design.
- mangeletti 11y agoAdam Smith's Wealth of Nations (754pp) - http://www.ibiblio.org/ml/libri/s/SmithA_WealthNations_p.pdf http://www.ibiblio.org/ml/libri/s/SmithA_WealthNations_p.pdf The Condensed Wealth of Nations (86pp) - http://www.adamsmith.org/sites/default/files/resources/condensed-WoN.pdf http://www.adamsmith.org/sites/default/files/resources/conde...
- snksnk 11y agoSome related readings: Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) - http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smMSCover.html http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smMSCover.html Adam Smith's Lectures on Justice, Police, Revenue and Arms (1763) - http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2621 http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2621 (warning: long page) Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776) - http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1365 http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1365 (warning: long page) Francis Hutcheson's An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1726) - http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/hutcheson-an-inquiry-into-the-original-of-our-ideas-of-beauty-and-virtue-1726-2004 http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/hutcheson-an-inquiry-into-... (warning: long page)
- cp9 11y agoSicp is available for free https://sicpebook.wordpress.com/ebook/ https://sicpebook.wordpress.com/ebook/
- metaedge 11y agohttp://swiftlang.eu/ http://swiftlang.eu/ Available in .MOBI, pdf, ePub or Online
- jrs235 11y agoSteal This Book: https://leanpub.com/stealthisbook https://leanpub.com/stealthisbook (Apparently no longer available from LeanPub... heres's a dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qm6vkabvd8jc3le/stealthisbook.pdf?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/qm6vkabvd8jc3le/stealthisbook.pdf?... ) Don't Just Roll the Dice: http://download.red-gate.com/ebooks/DJRTD_eBook.pdf http://download.red-gate.com/ebooks/DJRTD_eBook.pdf
- lovelearning 11y ago"Introduction to Statistical Learning" (http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~gareth/ISL/ http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~gareth/ISL/) gives an excellent foundation for all machine learning approaches.
- weavie 11y agoThe accompanying videos are also well worth it : http://www.r-bloggers.com/in-depth-introduction-to-machine-learning-in-15-hours-of-expert-videos/ http://www.r-bloggers.com/in-depth-introduction-to-machine-l...
- lovelearning 11y agoHey, thanks for that! Added to my watch list.
- waqf 11y agoIf your preferred book isn't available for free, it usually means you haven't tried at Library Genesis.
- ericssmith 11y agoHow to Design Programs 2E http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/HtDP2e/ http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/HtDP2e/ This book is much more than the intro to programming that it appears to be. It is a foundational approach for producing robust programs, regardless of your implementation language or level of experience.
- gandalfu 11y agoUnfortunately it looks like the authors never completed the next book on the series about real time programming. How to design worlds. http://world.cs.brown.edu/1/ http://world.cs.brown.edu/1/
- ericssmith 11y agoThanks for pointing this out. I was interested to see they credit Paul Hudak's "Haskell School of Expression" for inspiration. I will have to take a fresh look at that given my newfound appreciation of HTDP (due to stumbling across Norman Ramsey's assessment of it). Also need to look deeper into Hudak's FRP now that I think about it.
- notJim 11y agoMarx's Capital is available here: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/, and there's a great free/open course to help you get through it here: http://davidharvey.org/reading-capital/ http://davidharvey.org/reading-capital/. It's a fairly hard read, but I've gotten through the first few chapters so far and found it very insightful.
- markoleary 11y ago... and when you've done educating yourself for the day, relax with a superb novel, licensed under CC: http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- kev6168 11y agoTest-Driven Development with Python [http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000000754/index.html http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000000754/index.ht...]
- readthisthing_ 11y agoWe send a daily newsletter with one really interesting thing to read. Here are the past 40 or so that we've sent: http://readthisthing.com/archive http://readthisthing.com/archive I think you're more talking about books, but still thought this might be relevant to what you're after.
- gandalfu 11y ago"The Macroscope" by Joël de Rosnay, a book on the systems approach http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/macrbook.html http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/macrbook.html This book is an excellent, easy to read introduction to cybernetics and systems thinking, with applications to living organisms, the economy and the world as a whole. The main theme is that the complex systems which govern our life should be looked at as a whole, rather than be taken apart into their constituents. The different systems, processes and mechanisms are beautifully illustrated with examples and pictures. Although the text is over 20 years old, this visionary document is still highly relevant to our present situation and state of knowledge. It is particularly recommended to people who wish to get an understanding of the basic concepts and applications of systems theory and cybernetics.
- MistahKoala 11y agoThanks for this - wasn't expecting to see a systems book pop up in this thread!
- AndrewOMartin 11y agoSome classic poems, they're short, but you'll find yourself rereading the ones that really engage you occasionally throughout your life. Here's some I found to be immediately accessible, to get you going. Poe's Raven - http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178713 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178713 Dulce et Decorum Est - http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html The Charge of the Light Brigade - http://poetry.eserver.org/light-brigade.html http://poetry.eserver.org/light-brigade.html
- mindcrime 11y agoIt's funny, I never cared much for poetry until I started listening to Iron Maiden and found out that "The Trooper" is based on "The Charge of the Light Brigade", as well as "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" being based on a Samuel Taylor Coleridge work. Now I enjoy reading both Coleridge and Tennyson quite a lot (as well as a few other poets, although it will never be my primary interest). And people used to say that heavy metal was bad for kids... feh.
- tjradcliffe 11y agoIn the other direction, I never understood rap until I studied Anglo-Saxon poetry. It has the same muscular rhythms and concern for status and manliness. I'd love to see a rapper do Beowulf!
- kwhitefoot 11y agoNot rap but take a look at Marillion's Grendel on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h4Wl8gupD8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h4Wl8gupD8.
- hanief 11y agoEloquent JavaScript. A delightful introduction to JavaScript and programming in general. http://eloquentjavascript.net http://eloquentjavascript.net
- oldbuzzard 11y agoFeynman Lectures on Physics http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/ http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/
- icbat 11y agohttp://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/ http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/ An example-driven guide to design patterns used in Games. Some overlap in to more general design patterns, but it provides especially tangible examples for those, too.
- okal 11y agoI built http://hackershelf.com http://hackershelf.com just for this. It's a crowdsourced listing of legally free books on just about any topic.
- crshults 11y agoThanks for this. I was happy to see 'Patterns for Time-Triggered Embedded Systems' on your list, though the link appears broken - new link: [1]. I remember working through that book and porting everything from C to Assembly (my boss at the time was too cheap to buy me the nice Keil compiler). Once I had that library in hand, I was knocking out his projects in days instead of weeks. [1] http://www.safetty.net/download/pont_pttes_2014.pdf http://www.safetty.net/download/pont_pttes_2014.pdf
- austenallred 11y agoHow much was the domain?
- psykovsky 11y ago10 to 20 USD, most probably.
- Winterflow3r 11y agothanks! this is really cool!
- 11y ago
- samsaga2 11y agoOne about physics http://motionmountain.net/ http://motionmountain.net/
- facepalm 11y agoHarry Potter And The Methods Of Rationality http://hpmor.com/ http://hpmor.com/
- JoshTriplett 11y agoSeconded. I also recommend the podcast version, at http://www.hpmorpodcast.com/ http://www.hpmorpodcast.com/ .
- benev 11y agoWarning: Shameless self promotion. LinuxVoice magazine is available for free nine months after publication. The issues can be found here: http://www.linuxvoice.com/creative-commons-issues/ http://www.linuxvoice.com/creative-commons-issues/ Quite a bit of our content is about programming and tech in general, so you may find something you like even if you're not a Linux user.
- jsingleton 11y agoLinux Voice is very good although I haven't read these issues for over 9 months! Keep up the good work guys.
- cooper12 11y agoWow, CC BY-SA (Share-alike) and not CC BY-NC-SA (Non Commercial) like I expected. I commend you guys for believing in your publishing model and vision by taking that risk.
- jsingleton 11y agoA few of these are already posted (or will be) but here you go: - https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/ https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/ - http://www.withouthotair.com/ http://www.withouthotair.com/ - http://www.harriman-house.com/book/view/1057/business/dave-coplin/the-rise-of-the-humans/ http://www.harriman-house.com/book/view/1057/business/dave-c... - http://hpmor.com/ http://hpmor.com/ - http://www.linuxvoice.com/creative-commons-issues/ http://www.linuxvoice.com/creative-commons-issues/
- fortytw2 11y agoAdding to the suggestion of HPMOR, Worm (https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/1-1/ https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/1-1/) is excellent and well worth a read.
- tjr 11y agohttp://philip.greenspun.com/seia/ http://philip.greenspun.com/seia/
- avinassh 11y agoThis repo maintains list of free programming books [0]. Many of the books at Green Tea Press[1] are available for free: - Think Python: How To Think Like a Computer Scientist - Think Bayes: Bayesian Statistics in Python - Think Complexity: Exploring Complexity Science with Python - Think Stats: Probability and Statistics for Programmers - The Little Book of Semaphores - Physical Modeling in MATLAB - Learning Perl the Hard Way few others. Do check the site. Secondly, books by Al Sweigart[2] are also freely available. They include: - Automate the Boring Stuff with Python[3] - Hacking Secret Ciphers with Python - Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python - Making Games with Python & Pygame [0] - https://github.com/vhf/free-programming-books https://github.com/vhf/free-programming-books [1] - http://www.greenteapress.com/ http://www.greenteapress.com/ [2] - https://inventwithpython.com/ https://inventwithpython.com/ [3] - https://automatetheboringstuff.com/ https://automatetheboringstuff.com/
- devalier 11y agoThe writings of Mencius Moldbug: http://moldbuggery.blogspot.com/ http://moldbuggery.blogspot.com/ Mind-bending writings on politics, history and economics.
- dmfdmf 11y agoRead it to see for yourself but this is long-winded, pseudo-intellectual garbage advocating fascism. Moldbug is a follower of Thomas Carlyle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Carlyle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Carlyle
- devalier 11y agoThere are definitions of fascism by which Moldbug is advocating fascism. There are definitions of fascism by which FDR or Woodrow Wilson were fascists. The definition of fascist by which Moldbug is a fascist is not the same definition that made fascist a synonym for evil incarnate. Moldbug certainly does not want a mob with pitchforks to take over the government and to murder the Jews and go on a global plan of conquest. To thus smear him by association with such an ideology is to be maliciously uncharitable. The purpose of his blog is to create hyperbole in the opposite direction of the current prevailing ideologies. The blog is shock treatment to get you to think about our society as a time traveler from two hundred years in the past or in the future might see it. He tries to snap you out of presentism. So there is a lot of crazy stuff in it. But there is a lot of information and perspectives that can be found nowhere else, and if you read them and incorporate them into your world views, you will have a more accurate picture of current reality, and you will make better predictions about world events. I do agree with the long-winded part. Some people like his whimsical, sci-fi jargon infused, verbose writing style, others cannot stand it. That is a matter of taste.
- mturmon 11y ago"create hyperbole in the opposite direction of the current prevailing ideologies" This is accurate and well-said. I differ greatly in the value I'd assign to the end product. It takes way too much work to untangle the possibly true, mind-bending stuff (<5%) from the sophomoric, reactionary (in the most derogatory sense of that word) stuff (>50%). It's not worth it. Also, and I say this as someone who enjoys reading long-winded essays for fun: the information density is too low. And finally, given the above: way too much attitude.
- pnathan 11y agoI like working through Richard Gabriel's books from time to time, available at dreamsongs.org.
- gadders 11y agoI should think there are plenty of classical texts such as Plutarch, Homer, Thucydides etc on Project Gutenburg.
- brudgers 11y agoThe first amazing thing I found on the internet: https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page in early 1994 over gopher at 9600 baud for a penny per minute. Still amazing.
- evanwolf 11y agoMe too! And today, I always keep a pocketful of classics on my phone.
- jarin 11y agoThese are fiction, but they're really enjoyable futurist sci-fi. The first one is about the singularity, and the second one is a really unique and interesting take on artificial intelligence. http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando-intro.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelera... http://lifeartificial.com http://lifeartificial.com
- tjradcliffe 11y agoMy novel "Darwin's Theorem", which is about stories, evolution, religion and science, is available for free: http://tjradcliffe.com/darwins_theorem/darwins_theorem.epub http://tjradcliffe.com/darwins_theorem/darwins_theorem.epub It's character-driven pure speculation on big ideas.
- gdubs 11y agoThe Art of Unix Programming: http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/ http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/
- veddox 11y agoA very good book - a solid, down-to-earth approach to designing and implementing programs.
- charliepark 11y agoMagic Ink: Information Software and the Graphical Interface, by Bret Victor http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/ http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/ (or PDF: http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/MagicInk.pdf http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/MagicInk.pdf)
- jowiar 11y agoAlong with everything else Bret Victor has done.
- dbpokorny 11y agonoble strategy - thanissaro bhikkhu http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/noblestrategy.pdf http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/nobles... Very readable introduction to the dhamma.
- kenbellows 11y agoAll of Cory Doctorow's books are free online: http://craphound.com/ http://craphound.com/ I enjoyed Little Brother and its sequel Homeland quite a lot.
- napperjabber 11y agohttp://learncodethehardway.org/ http://learncodethehardway.org/ Great books not just about the language, but the tools that help make utilizing the language that much easier.
- joeclef 11y agoLearn C and build your own Lisp http://www.buildyourownlisp.com http://www.buildyourownlisp.com
- fsloth 11y agoThis translation of Suvorov's "Inside the soviet army" was a real treat to a history buff http://militera.lib.ru/research/suvorov12/index.html http://militera.lib.ru/research/suvorov12/index.html Actually quite topical given russias recent escapades - this details pretty well the society and the power dynamics that gave birth to the current situation. Also reads like an alternate version of "Catch-22" except the content should be 100% autobiographical.
- mindcrime 11y agoThe Law - Frédéric Bastiat. http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html Capitalism - A Treatise on Economics - George Reisman. http://www.capitalism.net/Capitalism/CAPITALISM_Internet.pdf http://www.capitalism.net/Capitalism/CAPITALISM_Internet.pdf The Works of Lysander Spooner. http://lysanderspooner.org/node/2 http://lysanderspooner.org/node/2 The Machinery of Freedom David Friedman. - http://daviddfriedman.com/The_Machinery_of_Freedom_.pdf http://daviddfriedman.com/The_Machinery_of_Freedom_.pdf Democratizing Innovation - Eric Von Hippel. http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/democ1.htm http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/democ1.htm The Sources of Innovation - Eric Von Hippel. http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/sources.htm http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/sources.htm Introduction to Information Retrieval - http://nlp.stanford.edu/IR-book/html/htmledition/irbook.html http://nlp.stanford.edu/IR-book/html/htmledition/irbook.html Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms - David MacKay. http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/itprnn/book.html http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/itprnn/book.html Introduction to Cybernetics - William Ross Ashby. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/books/IntroCyb.pdf http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/books/IntroCyb.pdf "Man-Computer Symbiosis" and "The Computer As A Communication Device" - J.C.R. Licklider. http://memex.org/licklider.pdf http://memex.org/licklider.pdf Design For A Brain - William Ross Ashby. https://archive.org/details/designforbrainor00ashb https://archive.org/details/designforbrainor00ashb The Writings of Douglas Engelbart. http://www.dougengelbart.org/library/library.html http://www.dougengelbart.org/library/library.html and if you like maths, don't miss this great list of free maths texts by George Cain: https://people.math.gatech.edu/~cain/textbooks/onlinebooks.html https://people.math.gatech.edu/~cain/textbooks/onlinebooks.h...
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- jestinjoy1 11y agoSelf Plug. I maintain a list in my personal web page for reference https://sites.google.com/site/jestinjoy/free-books https://sites.google.com/site/jestinjoy/free-books
- porsager 11y agoIf you're already at Mises.org you should read Ethics of liberty http://anarcho-capitalist.org/wp-content/pdfs/Rothbard%20%28Murray%29%20-%20The%20Ethics%20of%20Liberty.pdf http://anarcho-capitalist.org/wp-content/pdfs/Rothbard%20%28... For a new liberty https://mises.org/sites/default/files/For%20a%20New%20Liberty%20The%20Libertarian%20Manifesto_3.pdf https://mises.org/sites/default/files/For%20a%20New%20Libert... If those are to your liking they contain some great reading lists. A lot of the books in those lists are also available for free at mises.org
- agentultra 11y agoUnderground by By Suelette Dreyfus http://www.encyclopaedia.com/pdfs/9/518.pdf http://www.encyclopaedia.com/pdfs/9/518.pdf
- jonschipp 11y agoSelf Service Linux: Mastering the Art of Problem Determination http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/013147751X/downloads/013147751X_book.pdf http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/013147751X/downloads/0... Great book on debugging issues on Linux \w strace, gdb, core dumps, etc.
- strangetimes 11y ago"A Pattern Language" by Christopher Alexander https://archive.org/details/APatternLanguage https://archive.org/details/APatternLanguage
- sethrin 11y agoI had no idea that was online. Thank you for posting it. For my contribution, I would suggest http://bartleby.com http://bartleby.com as a source for literature.
- noblethrasher 11y agoThe short stories of P.G. Wodenhouse, just to see what real mastery of the English language looks like.
- brickcap 11y agoGood to see a fan of Wodehouse :) I like his longer works better. I read ukridge and mulliner nights a while back. They were good but not as good as jeeves and the others.
- ebbv 11y agoMises.org is a Libertarian propaganda site. That PDF hardly contains everything you need to know about Economics, unless you only want to learn a bunch of Libertarian talking points.
- joeyspn 11y agoTesla's "My Inventions" autobiography http://www.teslinavizijainterneta.rs/wp-content/uploads/Nkola_Tesla_My_Inventions.pdf http://www.teslinavizijainterneta.rs/wp-content/uploads/Nkol...
- codyb 11y agoThe Tao Te Ching is available for free [0]. It's the basis for the Eastern philosophy of Taoism. Religious or spiritual or not, I find this collection of verses to encourage different forms of lateral and vertical thinking that I may otherwise miss. Anyways, might not be for everyone, but I enjoy it. [0] - http://www.taoism.net/ttc/complete.htm http://www.taoism.net/ttc/complete.htm
- stephanos2k 11y agoCQRS Journey "This guidance is designed to help you get started with the CQRS pattern and event sourcing. It is not intended to be the definitive guide to the CQRS pattern and event sourcing. Instead, it's a journal that describes the experiences of a development team with no prior CQRS proficiency in building, deploying (to Microsoft Azure), and maintaining a sample real-world complex enterprise system as a reference implementation (RI) to showcase various CQRS and ES concepts & techniques." available as PDF: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj554200.aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj554200.aspx
- walterbell 11y ago(1) Lions on Unix (PDF and source), http://www.lemis.com/grog/Documentation/Lions/index.php http://www.lemis.com/grog/Documentation/Lions/index.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions%27_Commentary_on_UNIX_6th_Edition,_with_Source_Code http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions%27_Commentary_on_UNIX_6th... "Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition, with Source Code by John Lions (1976) contains the complete source code of the 6th Edition Unix kernel plus a commentary. It is commonly referred to as the Lions book. Despite its age, it is still considered an excellent commentary on simple but high quality code." (2) Harper's dictionary of classical literature and antiquities (1898), 1750 pages, https://archive.org/details/harpersdictiona00peckgoog https://archive.org/details/harpersdictiona00peckgoog (3) Oxford English Dictionary (1888), 15000 searchable page scans in a Windows app, https://archive.org/details/oed11_201407 https://archive.org/details/oed11_201407
- acjohnson55 11y agoJavascript Allongé is one of my favorite programming books ever: https://leanpub.com/javascript-allonge/read https://leanpub.com/javascript-allonge/read. I think it's a great book even if you don't program Javascript, because the way Braithwaite talks about programming language techniques is so interesting. I had been programming Javascript for a long time before I read this back, and afterward, it changed my whole point of view on how it could be used.
- wmock 11y agoI agree with you - just started reading this and finding it super helpful in my understanding of JS.
- squeaky-clean 11y agoWould love to check this out, but I'm seeing this error: > Book not published > You may not read an unpublished book.
- williamle8300 11y agoThe commenter posted the wrong link. Correct link: https://leanpub.com/javascript-allonge https://leanpub.com/javascript-allonge
- mmorris 11y agoActually, the original version of this book is no longer for sale. The link for the updated free version is here: https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix/read https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix/read Or, if you want to buy it in other formats, here: https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix
- acjohnson55 11y agoAh, thanks, wasn't aware of the update!
- giacomoharp 11y agoOldie but goodie. A contrarian view of business from a prototypical hacker, Don Lancaster. I re-read this every few years to regain perspective. The Incredible Secret Money Machine http://www.tinaja.com/ebooks/ismm.pdf http://www.tinaja.com/ebooks/ismm.pdf more of Don: http://tinaja.com/ http://tinaja.com/ -G
- michaelmior 11y agoPapers We Love[0] is an interesting collection of computer science papers. [0] https://github.com/papers-we-love/papers-we-love https://github.com/papers-we-love/papers-we-love
- anthony_romeo 11y agoJust a bit of caution. The Ludwig von Mises Institute is a group devoted to specifically advocating one branch of economics, Austrian Economics. Part of this branch is staunch Libertarianism, but they don't believe in several aspects which are typical in mainstream economic branches, such as using statistical modeling and mathematics to draw conclusions about economic status or action. I'm not here to debate the merits of the Austrian branch compared to other branches. I just think that it's important to have a general and unbiased understanding of the other branches of economics before reading a text which is effectively a criticism of those branches and an advocacy for one specific branch.
- readme 11y agoIndeed. The mises.org site exists for advocacy, not education. This is very important.
- tjradcliffe 11y agoThat said, the "One Lesson" of the book's title is applicable to all schools of economics: that to qualify as good economic thinking, the consequences of a proposed change must be propagated through the entire economy, and not cut off until they are plausibly insignificant. This is something that any modern economist should agree with, regardless of what their other biases are.
- hoopd 11y agoWouldn't that make all microeconomics bad economic thinking?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- anthony_romeo 11y agoMIT's opencourseware would be a good start. They often have links to free textbooks. Their course on Principals of Microeconomics (http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/economics/14-01sc-principles-of-microeconomics-fall-2011/Syllabus http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/economics/14-01sc-principles-of-m...) has a free textbook.
- atomicbeanie 11y agoHigher Order Perl: http://hop.perl.plover.com/ http://hop.perl.plover.com/ On Lisp: http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html Also http://it-ebooks.info/ http://it-ebooks.info/ has a wide selection of free ebooks with ads.
- pmontra 11y agoThe novels and short stories of Peter Watts (scifi) http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm
- TheAlchemist 11y agoWarren Buffett's letters to sharelhoders: http://berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html http://berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html This is pure wisdom (a lot of economic subjects, but not only).
- karinqe 11y ago'Rationality: From AI to Zombies' is available on a pay-what-you-want basis. It talks about cognitive science, ethics, human (ir)rationality and how to improve it, among other things. It stems from the Lesswrong Sequences [2], which have a lot more content, but are a bit messy. [1] https://intelligence.org/rationality-ai-zombies/ https://intelligence.org/rationality-ai-zombies/ [2] http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Rationality_materials http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Rationality_materials
- keithpeter 11y agoPerhaps not sequential reading on your laptop but very useful none the less... https://openstaxcollege.org/students https://openstaxcollege.org/students Selected excerpts from the Physics and Biology volumes have been used by colleagues of mine to support background reading for pre-university students in the UK.
- Estragon 11y agoDebt: The First 5000 Years [1] Anthropological analysis of finance. With Each & Every Breath [2] Highly practical primer on meditation and how it works, from a Thai Forest tradition perspective. [1] https://libcom.org/files/__Debt__The_First_5_000_Years.pdf https://libcom.org/files/__Debt__The_First_5_000_Years.pdf [2] http://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/EachAndEveryBreath_v130123.pdf http://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/EachAndEveryBrea...
- _nullandnull_ 11y agoYou and Your Research by Richard Hamming http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html
- jay-saint 11y agoButterick's Practical Typography http://practicaltypography.com http://practicaltypography.com is a must read for anyone in design or UX field. Everyone should read and take to heart the condensed version http://practicaltypography.com/typography-in-ten-minutes.html http://practicaltypography.com/typography-in-ten-minutes.htm...
- bootload 11y ago"What are your recommended reads that are available for free?" Ask Professor Steve. [0] I ran into Steve on HN back in 2010 and went for a walk with a mob of economists. [1][2] The key thing I got talking to Steve? Economics is fundamentally flawed. Read with caution. Reference: [0] https://twitter.com/ProfSteveKeen https://twitter.com/ProfSteveKeen [1] http://seldomlogical.com/kw.html http://seldomlogical.com/kw.html [2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1126054 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1126054
- AnthonBerg 11y agoTuning for Speed by Phil Irving - http://tuningforspeed.com/files/Tuning_for_Speed.pdf http://tuningforspeed.com/files/Tuning_for_Speed.pdf Combustion engine tuning. Very accessible yet deep.
- lolive 11y agoOn the Shortness of Life http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/seneca_younger/brev_e.html http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/seneca_younger/brev_e...
- wonjun 11y agoI'm giving away "Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software" book for anyone who wants to pay shipping, http://www.shareprogrammingbooks.com/books/0201633612 http://www.shareprogrammingbooks.com/books/0201633612
- wojteksz 11y agoFixed To Flexible – The Ebook by Todd Sattersten. It is about cost, price, margin, and the options we have for how to sell. http://www.scribd.com/doc/26237737/Fixed-to-Flexible-The-Ebook http://www.scribd.com/doc/26237737/Fixed-to-Flexible-The-Ebo...