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Books that Changed Your Life?
Pubb asks: "I'm a Computer Science teacher at a school with an interesting tradition. Every year, the graduating student who has performed best in a particular subject area is given a book prize. Rather than give this particular student the usual book on Java or Linux, I would like to get something more impactful. I ask you, fellow Slashdot readers, to name the books that helped unleash your geek within. All I ask is that the book be reasonably available, even if it is no longer in print."
...Well, that would be the Anarchist's Cookbook. Sorry I couldn't be of any help.
A good Computer Science program will cover everything in GEB with more depth and without all the stupid-writing-tricks and dumbing down that Hofstadter employs. As someone who forced myself through GEB (to see what all the fuss was about) after graduating from a good CS program, I would describe it as a must-read book only for highschool-educated Perl hackers without any exposure to theoretical computing.
A true icon of what our culture is, what we hope, and what we fear. Some parts read a little oddly with the way technology realy went, but all in all a great book.
That which is done from love exists beyond good and evil
It also gives Wilde's brilliant opinions on what the meaning of Art is. Basically, in a time when so many people are asking "Why are we here", Wilde gives an answer. Obviously you may not agree with him later, but damned if you don't believe while reading it.
It's hard to explain Wilde's writing in a short comment. His writing is full, beautiful, and has endless amounts of wit. It is the perfect "life changer" for a geek.
Just a couple of quotes from Dorian Gray(taken from Wikipedia):
This is a hard topic for me, as I'm an avid reader, I could come up with 20 books off the topic of my head to suggest.
by Plato. A discussion of the nature of knowledge and the ways in which we know what we know. This book has proven to be absolutely indispensable for my work as a programmer. Rigorous mental discipline with an eye toward tearing down what we think we know to understand how to know is not only good practice for designing applications but also for life in general. I give it to all my student-aged friends.
It may be crap, and fun to burn, however the act of buying it would still support the Scientologists
I was just at the end of second grade, and *really* into submarines. My neighbor was two years older than me, and made fun of me for getting "little kids' two-page books" when we went to the bookmobile. So early that Summer, I got another age-appropriate book about submarines, but I also got 20,000 Leagues. It took me most of the Summer and several renewals, but I was determined to read that book. To be honest, quite a bit of it zoomed over my head, too. But I read the whole thing.
A good lesson in stick-to-it-ivness, and it helped launch my life-long interest in Science Fiction, which helped launch my interest and career in technology, as an engineer.
As a bad side-effect, I never looked at any of the many 20,000 Leagues movies quite the same, after that book, since none I've seen were truly faithful. (Most tried to hint at nuclear power, instead of really good batteries, etc.)
I really ought to reread the book, some time. For all the books I've read and re-read, I've never re-read that one.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
I'm not sure I want to dissect it too much... for those who haven't, read it, grok it, you'll find out why you read it later (you might try reading after fasting, then right after reading it, watch Groundhog's Day... don't ask, just do).
One aspect is that of Right Action. The Gita teaches us to follow the path of Right Action without Desire for the particular end. This has direct applications in engineering. Why must I spend my time testing and documenting? I hate it it's boring. Don't desire for the testing and documentation phase to end. Just do what you're supposed to do.
When you look across the battle lines and see your QA and Management families lined up, and you understand that you must put them through extensive pain in the war we call a Release, don't worry about it. Just do what you are Supposed to do.
Sorry if this sounds a little metaphysical. It is also probably Wrong in some ways. But grok it anyway I promise it will help.
It is silly to look down your nose at mere self taught Perl hackers.
It is silly to look down on anyone, but I don't think that is the issue here. A lot of people who don't have a computer science degree can make excellent programmers (although I would think having a degree would make it a lot easier). The thing I find interesting is that those who teach themselves programming often seem to think that CS is about programming, and it isn't.
Some one who gets a PhD in CS probably has no intention of doing much programming in their lifetime (most of the ones I know don't do much). Someone who teaches themself a language probably does. These people are out to do different things. That is why I find the idea of a PhD looking down on a perl hacker to be silly. They aren't in the same line of work.
The bottom line is that Computer Scientist != Programmer. They aren't even similar.
For "books that changed my life", I'd recommend instead The Mind's I by Hofstadter and Dennett. It was used as the text for the philosophy class I took my freshman year in college; I can still remember the day when, bored at my part-time campus job, I flipped through it to find Smullyan's Is God a Taoist? , which forever cleared up for me the whole question of free will versus determinism:
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
I would say without a doubt that it has had a profound effect on the way I think about programming and CS as a whole. It's about CS only as much as it is about logic, math, puzzles, reasoning, music, philosophy, and life. It's one of the most well-worn books in my library, and reading it always renews my passion to learn, to explore, to see CS as a road that's worth exploring, not as just a quick way to get from point A to point B.
has to be the One book that influenced me very deeply while i was in grad school.
highly recommended.
One of my professors loaned me his copy of The Shockwave Rider in 1982. I don't know if this book changed my life, but it certainly made me think about how computers could (and should) be used. Written in 1975, John Brunner guessed wrong about the details of the technology, but scored a direct hit on the results of technology on society, and what it will mean for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the 21st century. This book was out of print for years, and it took me more than a decade of scowering used book stores to find a copy for myself -- I now have several copies so that I can lend them to others.
Buy it from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
We call it art because we have names for the things we understand.