Ask HN: What books will stay relevant for many years to come? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What books will stay relevant for many years to come?

12 pointsshubhamjain9 comments

I just finished reading, The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman and it is just amazing how the author has laid down principles of design that will stay relevant for many years even if the technology will change drastically.

What are books like this which will stay relevant for a long period of time?

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A quick heuristic is that older books that are still relevant today are more likely to remain relevant in the future. I don't know much about design books, but I would bet on Tufte books to remain relevant for a long time. Any really old book that is still in print would be a good candidate, and the older the more likely to stay relevant.

Other books that will be around for decades (or more) (to pick some non design things): The Bible, SICP, Feynman's Lectures, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Shakespeare.

Having done a paper on cyber war for school, I was surprised to find that the two books that were quoted most often by war theorists were Carl von Clausewitz's "Vom Kriege" and Sun-Tzu's "The Art of War" - one is 200 years old, the other 2000...

If you are asking about the general books then the one which has been relevant from 5000 years and will always be relevant in future also is Bhagwat Gita

Code complete and mythical man month stand up very well. As does K and R as a lesson in concise documentation even if it's a little outdated technically.

Any book light on specifics (tactics) but heavy on theory (strategy) will age better because it will be less effected by changing circumstances.

The Psychology of Computer Programming seems to be holing up well from its first publishing in 1971.

Do you mean books in general or books on design and/or psychology, like Norman’s?

An algorithms book.

Its good to have an idea of algorihms, but in this day and age, only so you know the correct library to choose.

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