Some Favorite Non-Technical Books (2018) | Hacker News Reader

Some Favorite Non-Technical Books (2018)

stroustrup.com

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One of my favorite classes with Bjarne from college was Bjarne telling us the story of a ten year-old who wrote him asking if it was too late to start programming and what he should learn so he can work as a programmer (to get started so he could be one of the best in the world at something in the field).

Bjarne says he responded by telling the kid to stop worrying about work or what he wanted to work as, and to spend time playing (both on the computer and just outside) because it was just as good as good for the mind as sitting in front of the computer and that ten year-olds could often be the best in the world at playing.

Similar to his penchant for fiction here, this is something I’ve always loved about Bjarne... despite being so good at one thing: finding the beauty in balance.

I'd bet that the nervous 10-year-old promptly ignored Bjarne's advice and went on to ask others what to cram.

And maybe 10-years old would be right. Not because of becoming best in the world, but because there would be zero harm to his development, really.

Unless he burns out.

Usually 10 years old (speaking from experience) don’t worry about job or employment prospect, they just want to do the cool thing. And if it’s the former that’s pushing I suspect a strong possibility of burning out.

Heck, even as an adult I can barely tolerate working on things I’m not interested in but pressured so.

Jeesh you must be fun at parties.

«I (Bjarne Stroustrup) have also been asked where I find the time to read non-technical books. Actually, it is not a question of finding the time. Reading non-technical stuff is essential. Without it, I'd go nuts and lose my sense of proportion. As a practical matter, I read for about an hour almost every evening before going to bed -- trying to go straight from technical work to sleep is usually not a good idea.»

> trying to go straight from technical work to sleep is usually not a good idea

I did this with an assignment last night and ended up dreaming about linear algebra. I did not sleep well!

Ahaha, I remember when I studied database systems and concepts once I had a vivid dream that I was inside a database or even like a database myself, and I saw visually how indexes were working - sort of 3D dynamic representation of pictures in the book I read.

There is a Fields medal winner, who does math in his sleep. John von Neumann loved to work in noisy environments, did not like quiet places.

It's rather common to dream about math or computing when you are solving some hard problem or digesting some topics with a time limit (next exam, project deadline, etc.)

As for Fields medalists, they are extremely creative folks who can find new and effective ways to tackle seriously deep problems, even when doing things unrelated to math (swimming, hiking, etc.)

I find technical books are a great way for me go to sleep. Just read a few pages and... boom... i'm ready to go to sleep!

The problem with using technical books to go to sleep is that you will start feeling sleepy when reading technical books during the day as well.

I heard people say this so I tried it a few times. I either finish the book or get interrupted reading by my wake up alarm. Never have I fallen asleep to something technical.

I've been reading for 30 mins to an hour before going to bed for the past 6 months as part of my "sleep hygiene" routine. Honestly, this has been quite the game changer for me. For one, I'm always looking forward to it, since I really like to immerse myself into my current book's world (I'm reading a really good book right now called "Cibola Burn" by James S. A. Corey, the fourth book in The Expanse Series). Additionally, it helps me to fall asleep much better and my sleep has improved a lot, too.

I can recommend this to almost anyone; IMHO sleep hygiene in general is quite important, and this is one of the approaches that might improve it quite a bit.

This is my schedule as well. The last hour of every evening is non-technical reading.

Can I just list my favorite non-technical books here?

Richard Feynman, What Do You Care What Other People Think? - Probably no additional description needed. It's a kind of sequel of Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! but has a more personal touch.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - Night Flight. A somewhat romanticized tale about the early era of air mail delivery. The story about the personal sacrifice for public good.

Tove Jansson - Moominvalley in November. It's disguised as a kid's story, but from what I read the book is about loss and absence of loved ones. Funny, soothing and surprisingly profound.

Hands down, the most useful non-technical book I’ve read is The True Believer by Eric Hoffer. Written in 1951, but utterly timeless, it unlocks a new way to view your fellow man by revealing the impulses that lead someone toward fanatical mass movements. In a funny way, it frees you from participating in the pointless debates about ideologies and allows you to be more empathetic to those who have fallen into the trap of mass movements. Beautifully written, too, without even a hint of academic pretensions.

Thanks for the recommendation. I liked the author's biography:

> Eric Hoffer (1902 -- 1983) was self-educated. He worked in restaurants, as a migrant fieldworker, and as a gold prospector. After Pearl Harbor, he worked as a longshoreman in San Francisco for twenty-five years. The author of more than ten books, including The Passionate State of Mind, The Ordeal of Change, and The Temper of Our Time, Eric Hoffer was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983.

For me, my favourite non-technical book I can remember reading is:

  The Tao of Physics[0]

In retrospect, this may explain my comfort with C++ over the years. ;-)

0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tao_of_Physics

wow, what a walk down memory lane.

this is a very, very good list. read most of these books in high school. Destoievski is still one of my favourite authors, and i still have dreams of Eco's 1300s abbey.

i would also mention Kafka, and any of the SciFi greats (Asimov, Clarke, P.K. Dick etc). Re-read a lot of these this past year.

and i would also mention Marcus Aurelius "Meditations", a book written 2000 years ago by one of the greatest thinkers of his time.

there are so many good book written throughout history it's absolutely crazy. the only problem i see is the monumental amount of crappy books that have been launching recently and becoming instant hits. combined with a "does this take longer than a 10 minute youtube video" attitude.

otherwise, if you have a modicum amount of patience, any of those books will prove to be an unforgettable experience.

Wrt. the sci-fi greats, I once worked my way through the list of joint winners of nebula and hugo awards, and it was awesome. Those books are all excellent.

>This "use" of literature and history is reflected in my choice of reading: There is very little "heavy" reading listed here.

And then he lists Dostoevsky and Homer. Those doesn't count as heavy reading? What counts as heavy reading? Ulysses/Paradise lost?

My "oh hell yeah!" moment was when i saw Lord of the Rings in the list :p

Do you find those difficult to read? I've not read them, so I'm actually asking. Or, is this a sentiment about older literature not being interesting, because of different tempo, cultural context, etc?

I think difficulty in reading something is a personal thing. For example, I find reading Pynchon very difficult, because I can't seem to track what's happening and because there's a sense of being inside someone's personal joke that you don't quite get. I find reading George R. R. Martin very easy, because it doesn't require analysis; but then, a friend of mine couldn't get through the first book of Song of Ice and Fire, because he found the vocabulary tedious.

There is a concordance for Gravity's Rainbow - which helps for non native readers.

That is assuming there is a corrected version the first printing I have confuses what a "redcap" is in the British military

Non-technical theory books I guess?

> And then he lists Dostoevsky and Homer. Those doesn't count as heavy reading? What counts as heavy reading? Ulysses/Paradise lost?

Dostoevsky is not difficult to read. If you like depressive psychological drama, it is quite enjoyable. Homer difficulty depends heavily on translation. It can be stiff and boring or basically just fun (but again, you gotta like the relationships non-actiony aspect of it).

Yeah, Ulysses is definitely hard to read.

And harder if you are a non-native English speaker (I grew up in Italy, live in the US since 2012).

I think there's a very wide range in difficulty for Dostoevsky's work. Crime and Punishment and Notes from Underground are a reasonable length, are told in a linear fashion, and largely easily differentiable characters. Brothers Karamazov, on the other hand, I found very challenging.

If Dostoevsky is not difficult to read, then there exist only a handful of authors who are. Maybe it isn't difficult to find enjoyment in his works, but there is a hell of a lot more going on than just depressive psychological drama.

I really dont think it is so difficult to read. I was no regular reader of classic and was definitely not seeking anything difficult when I found it first time and I enjoyed it.

I used to abandon books quickly when they were hard to read or boring or anything like that.

Dostoevsky is dark and deep, but it may feel an easer entertaining read - say, Brothers Karamazov. Crime and Punishment was harder for me. Tolstoy is more difficult to read due to epic long sentences.

Ulysses and Paradise Lost are in their own category.

There are different kinds of difficulty-to-read. I had the following experience multiple times with Crime and Punishment: I would pick it up and start reading, and think "wow, this is really amazing stuff", and then at some point I would put it down for a day or two and then somehow not want to pick it back up again. Not because it was hard to follow (it isn't), nor because it's badly written (it isn't), but because the world it puts you inside is a pretty unpleasant one.

(I did eventually read the whole thing, of course, and I'm glad I did.)

Who else is adding this to an already huge list of "To Read" items in their "To Do" list?

Damn. Me too. Although, I am cherrypicking, instead of adding it all.

I have a long list of non-technical (and non-fiction) books, available here: https://public.3.basecamp.com/p/8ogy66cGzqVxape4Th648eLV

If you're interested in reading and talking about these types of books with people who have a similar bookish intuitions, shameless plug: https://strangers-club.com

there is only one kierkegaard book there, i was hoping for more :) (given a bunch of epigraphs (from kierkegaard) in various books that he has authored)

He has some excellent books in there with classics and cult favorites but I have to specifically give the highest recommendation to John Steinbeck's dilogy of Cannery Row/Sweet Thursday.

It's a very humanistic book that covers stories of poor characters in a humorous way without mocking them or acting as if they're beneath others somehow. The atmosphere of the books is inviting and warm and they're both good stories to read in the cold of the upcoming winter. They're often overlooked in favor of Steinbeck's popular titles like Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden but I'd say these two are essentials as well.

I read "Seven Gothic Tales" by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen's pen name) after seeing it quoted in Stroustrup's "The C++ Programming Language". Lovely dreamlike prose. Stroustrup's book is one of my all-time favourite technical works, I hope we get a new edition for the latest versions of the language.

No Nordic Noir? e.g. Henning Mankell.

Lots of history, but only Barbara Tuchman on WW 1. I recommend G. J. Meyer "A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914-1918" and "The World Remade: America in World War I".

These are just his favorites not everything he's read, and kudos to him for putting this out there. But I'm a little disappointed as the list is kind of heavily Euro-centric. Probably even just a couple decades ago this would be the norm but I think in 2019 a person of his calibre and intelligence could benefit a lot by broadening his reading tastes, and there are increasingly many excellent (non-european) authors to choose from to broaden one's perspectives. Not a criticism, just my observation.

I love the good ol' fashioned web page look.

We lost something. At the beginning of internet, I remember, there were this kind of lists, with many links to interesting webpages, or quirky stuff. Surely you know what I mean, it was usual to see along smart blogs, this kind of list of gorgeous references, and it was amazing.

Maybe I'm missing something, but nowadays the internet seems "diluted", there is more noise than information, and it's full of common sense, low-value content (like Wikihow, I'm sorry to say). Google Search is a bit responsible, they rank at the top superficial stuff, and we lost trace of this kind of juicy content.

If someone has more links like this one, I'd be happy to read about it.

Straight to the point; nothing but the good stuff! These days I am happy just that something is presented as text and not a pointless, time-sapping video.

Given the paucity of free time, I would much rather spend it reading books like those listed here than listen to someone mumble and umm-ahh to deliver in 10 minutes what I can read in 1 minute.

On his list of books itself, perhaps I am a bad judge of character but I assume someone who reads a diverse range of books will have the mindset to take on board a diverse range of factors in their technical work. Perhaps the vast scope of the C++ language reflects this!

are dirk gently books even better than the show?

Most definitely

I Would take Thucydides over Herodotus any day

I would rather take Plutarch than either of them, the very tricks and manipulations described in his Lives are still what politicians still use day to day to get what they want done.

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