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Ask Slashdot: What Books Have Had a Significant Impact On Your Life?
gspec writes "A little background about me: 36-year-old computer engineer working in the Bay Area. While I bring in a comfortable salary, I consider myself an underachiever, and my career is stagnant (I have only been promoted four times in my 12-year career). I have led a couple projects, but I am not in any sort of leadership/management position. I realize I need to do something to enhance my career, and unfortunately, going back to school is not an option. One thing I can do is to read more quality books. My question: which books, of any type or genre, have had a significant impact on your life?"
The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov is and will always be my favorite series of books. Those are the first real science fiction books I read, they were welcome reprieve from those terrible books I had to read in high school.
Dune by Frank Herbert. The sheer scope of events which take place in this sage showed me how insignificant daily events really were. While it was fictional, the way the Shaddam, the Baron Harkonnen, and Muad'Dib feel about their subjects/followers/slaves gave me a hard dose of reality. There are a lot of people out there, and most of them have no idea that you just got picked on walking to class, dropped some spaghetti on your shirt, or had a really crappy day.
sudo make me a sandwich
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
http://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6del-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden/dp/0465026567
This book taught me more about coding (and recursion, and all sorts of other concepts) than any language-specific book I've read. I carried it around for a couple of years, making my way through as I could. Highly recommended.
the words used indicates he considered promotion to be enhancing career. Therefore he just needs to become the right kind of jerk.
The Prince -- Machiavelli
The Art of War -- Sun Tzu
Steve Jobs -- Dylan Baker
You know what, forget the last one, world doesn't need any more of those extreme over-the-top jerks