Thousands of years of written history can't be wrong!;)
I've spent a lot of time writing software in my life. Almost all of professionally if you chalk up the years into hours. Of course, they waited until senior level college course work to break the bad news to us wide-eyed nerds: Alan Turing proved in 1936 that a lot of VERY important stuff we might want to do with computers, simply can't be done because of something called the halting problem. Mix in ye olde halting problem, the scope of complexity that is involved in allowing you to read this drivel I'm writing traveling from one computer to another, and the fun pace of change we thrust upon ourselves re-doing technologies over and over and it becomes obvious that a mere few decades since the introduction of the first programmable computer where we are: We hardly know what the hell we're doing with these damn things. Building software is a craft - part art and part science. These are a few of my favorite books that recognize that craft aspect and help get you on the road to writing good software out in the "real world".
Written before I was born, but still just as insightful today. This book talks about how programming is a combined individual AND team effort. It also serves as an interesting time capsule showing how far we've have, and yet have not come.
Recently celebrating a 20th anniversary publishing, this is a book no starting software developer should be without. Seriously, it's worth actually buying the "dead tree" edition. It covers everything you weren't told about actually starting this career if you're coming from university, bootcamp, or striking out as self-taught.
Don't even bother with "the gang of four" unless you absolutely love writing nothing but word processors and need something to help you get to sleep at night. This is a bit silly, but that's the point. The examples will stick with you.
Do you work in software development? Do you follow Scrum? Have you read the Scrum Guide and noticed as of 2020 it only uses the word "software" once and that's in reference to where it came from, not where it's going? Stop doing that. Look into the real foundation of agile software development where things like code quality & software craftsmanship actually mean something. You can start here.
This is a lot of fun. I completed the first half of it so far following a Coursera course on the hardware portion of building the computer & into writing an assembler. I'm looking forward to finishing the 2nd half sometime in 2021.
If you want to understand how to understand object oriented design. Start here to learn the WHAT. There's no code in this book. It's all about how to THINK about problem solving in terms of objects. Once you want to learn the HOW, I suggest picking up at least Volume 1 of Elegant Objects.
A few books that stand out as being worth recommending to people over the years. I've gotten some value out of these for learning, personal growth and/or entertainment.
The only book that might be considered "self help" that I've ever actually found helpful. The concepts are short and simple, but like most other aspects of change hard to live by. There's a lot to unpack in each of these 7 statements, so I considered it a worthy read & have listened to the audio book multiple times when I've needed to push myself back towards positive action.
This is was just the transcript of Jeff Bridges & Bernie Glassman talking Zen philosophy. Yet still, it made the NY Times bestseller list. I've read it a few times. It's definately worthy.
Eccentric Seattle is highly recommended if you ever have, do now, or think you might some day call Seattle home. This is a great read about all the things you're likely NOT to be told about how the city got started. Fun for the kids!;)
Anthony Bourdain had an great writing voice. Pulling back the curtain on high end dining set the stage for an amazing travel series in the 2000's & 2010's. It was food and people of the world unfiltered with his punk ethic giving voice to the humble and hardest working peoples through sharing a meal. His suicide left a hole in the world that can never be filled with the same unique blend of wit, wisdom, compassion, and humility.
My first attempt to get a better understanding of the black American experience as a white man through reading. It was easier to tackle than The Autobiography of Malcom X, and more deep and heartfelt as is the nature of James Baldwin's writing. Yes, this is an apples and oranges comparison. Forgive me for abusing the metaphor, but I was new to the "fruit" of literature on the black American experience.
As a white man, I had trouble reading this. It actually took me multiple tries due to all the anger and hate in the middle that Malcom X expressed towards white people. Eventually, I came back to it when there was an Audible version read by Laurence Fishburne. I'm glad I did. As the saying goes:
I understand that I will never understand, but I stand.
I read the first paperback edition of this when I was in high school. It's about hackers in the tech/nerd cultural sense., not in the computer intrusion and fraud sense. Specifically, it's about the evolution from cold, restricted machines to the first actual personal computers and the people who saw the potential of joy in creating things with computers.
A great story about the triumph of hands on learning, adaptation, and iteration. It tells the story of the real people who worked to together to solve problems and make network computing possible.
The story behind creation of the some of the most popular, groundbreaking computer games series of the 1990's that created the first person shooter genre: Doom & Quake. This tells the behind the scenes story of John Carmack & John Romero's partnership and eventual parting of ways with all the ups and downs of fame, fortune and the start of the computer gaming industry.