Hacker News Books

Try not to pass the cognitive load to others. Make them do as little work as possible -- be computationally kind.

An interesting mix of computer science and psychology. Just started on this one recently. Highly recommended by a colleague. Seems great so far.

Super accessible.

http://algorithmstoliveby.com/

I'm reading Algorithms to Live By and the section on explore/exploit feels relevant here. At what point do you stop looking for new things and rely on the things you already know. lol I feel like i lack the IQ to connect all the dots but there's something applicable in that section to this discussion. maybe i should re-read it...

https://smile.amazon.com/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-De...

Algorithms to Live By
Brian Christian

I think books like these can be a great eye opener. We all remember thinking "what am I gonna use this for??" in high school maths, physics etc, and I think this is a fun, approachable and interesting way to see real life impact of maybe otherwise dry and abstract stuff.

It is that in the early part of life, we focus on exploration (extreme case: young kids), which includes meeting lots of new people and having many friends. Then as we age, we focus more on the "exploitation" part: focusing on what we liked best. This leads to reducing the circle of friends to a reduced core of very good friends.

Of course, it would be reductive to only consider this angle (e.g.: having kids tends to reduce quite a lot social activities, and often happen in this age range). But it's an interesting perspective, and the CS part of it may resonate with the HN crowd ;)

[1] http://algorithmstoliveby.com/

I'd wish more of those problems showed up in my daily work, though.

Btw, a cool popsci book about algorithms occuring in day to day life is "Algorithms to live by".

According to his theory, the mind has essentially infinite capacity for memories, but we have only a finite amount of time in which to search for them.

The key to a good human memory then becomes the same as the key to a good computer cache: predicting which items are most likely to be wanted in the future. That it’s a perfect tuning of the brain to the world, making available precisely the things most likely to be needed.

In putting the emphasis on time, caching shows us that memory involves unavoidable tradeoffs, and a certain zero-sumness. You can’t have every library book at your desk, every product on display at the front of the store, every headline above the fold, every paper at the top of the pile. And in the same way, you can’t have every fact or face or name at the front of your mind.

“Many people hold the bias that human memory is anything but optimal,” wrote Anderson and Schooler. “They point to the many frustrating failures of memory. However, these criticisms fail to appreciate the task before human memory, which is to try to manage a huge stockpile of memories. In any system responsible for managing a vast data base there must be failures of retrieval. It is just too expensive to maintain access to an unbounded number of items.”

From the book: Algorithms to Live By.

And I think this also applies to other fields. I gave the book "Algorithms To Live By" (which is basically an overview of CS algorithms) to a medicine student and he was immediately inspiried and came up with ideas on how to apply these ideas on his research. CS algorithms are just so basically true that I think they should be more universally known.

Algorithms to live by [0] - I am an engineer by training and product manager. I am always on the lookout to improve my knowledge of computer science. This book helps tremendously by showing a way to _look_ at problems. Certainly helps to have a better mental toolkit.

Inner Engineering - A Yogi's guide to joy [1] . Has really helped me get perspective on the issues that matter and how to lead a happier life.

I have been reading up on Physics (Richard Feynmann's books, obviously) and intend to continue this in the quest for better thinking. I do wish I had done this earlier in my life :-( but never too late!

[0]https://www.amazon.in/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-Decis...

[1] https://www.amazon.in/dp/B06XXN19Y9/

I understand the concept of probabilistic valuation of risks/opportunities of a given candidate, and if that were practically quantifiable in the real world, I agree that it would represent a sound way to price an offer (provided you also factored in the cost of losing a candidate and having to put more resources towards finding an equivalent or better candidate)... [1]

Unfortunately, in practice, a candidate has to be evaluated more coarsely as "good enough to hire" or "not good enough to hire". There's no way you could in good conscience employ someone who couldn't do the work - even if they came at a discount. That means that there definitely is budget surplus any time you hire someone at less than your maximum budget. There is a fixed amount you're able to pay to get the work done, and that is at the max of your budget range.

Strategically, then, the max of the range offered represents the minimum a qualified candidate should target in a negotiation... Your mileage may vary, of course, with the skill of the negotiator.

[1] By the way, I highly recommend Algorithms to Live By for an interesting discussion around the use of such methods in practice.

Algorithms to live by Brian Christian
https://www.amazon.ca/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-Decis...

Bad Choices: How Algorithms Can Help You Think Smarter and Live Happier by Ali Almossawi
https://www.amazon.ca/Bad-Choices-Algorithms-Smarter-Happier...

I didn't read any non-fiction for a long time before I was given a book as a gift [0] that was really good. Since then, I have received a few other recommendations that I enjoyed [1-2].

[0] Artificial Intelligence by Melanie Mitchell

[1] Algorithms to Live By by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths

[2] The Theoretical Minimum Series by Leonard Susskind

If you want a glimpse here's a talk they gave at Google: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwKj-wgXteo

This made me want to create a “deeper” article about some of the psychology that I think influences remote teams, along with some thoughts around what leaders can do to combat some of the pitfalls.

I decided to combine my viewpoints with three of my favourite books: Give and Take, Algorithms to Live By, and the Four Tendencies.

I’m interested to hear what other remote workers think. Does remote work influence the give/take balance? Do we need to be more intentional about how we’re designing remote systems? Do you think we can learn anything from the four tendencies data?

PS: If anyone has links to articles that dig deep into the psychology of remote work, I’d love to read them.

Thinking fast and slow by Danny K

Antifragile by Nassim Taleb

Algorithms To Live By by Brian Christian & Tom Griffiths

I thought about giving fictional books to people, but it seems to personal a present for a work acquaintance

Before I get downvoted to hell, let me say THIS IS NOT AN AFFILIATE LINK, I will earn nothing if you click it (I hate spam as much as the next guy but people here tend to be a little trigger happy).

[1] https://www.audible.com/pd/Business/Algorithms-to-Live-By-Au...

* Born a Crime by Noah Trevor

* Half of a Yellow Sun by Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi

* Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Alexievich, Svetlana

* Ex-Formation by Hara, Kenya (best book I read this year)

* A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bryson, Bill

* Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human
Decisions by Brian Christian (applying algorithm theory to daily life)

* Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Voss Chris (meh)

* Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days by Knapp Jake (meh)

* All the Light We Cannot See by Doerr Anthony (loved it)

* The Remains of the Day by Ishiguro Kazuo (loved it)

C++:

"The C++ Programming Language", Stroustrup

"Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++", Stroustrup

Quant:

"Quantitative Trading", Dr. Ernest Chan

"Algorithmic Trading", Dr. Ernest Chan

"Machine Trading: Deploying Computer Algorithms to Conquer the Markets", Dr. Ernest Chan

"Advances in Financial Machine Learning", Marcos Lopez de Prado

"Options, Futures and Other Derivatives (10th edition)", John C. Hull

Buddhism:

"Open Heart, Clear Mind", Thubten Chodron

"Buddhism For Beginners", Thubten Chodron

"Working with Anger", Thubten Chodron

Reading For Pleasure:

"Naked Statistics", Charles Wheelan

"Algorithms to Live By", Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths

"Dark Pools"

"The Quants", Scott Patterson

"The Physics Of Wall Street", James Owen Weatherall

Plus some Chinese books, I wont bore with the details, unless anyone wants to know. Fun Fact, while I was in China for 8 weeks in late 2017 I bought 60 Chinese books and stuffed them in a suitcase. It cost me $4,000RMB (~$604 USD) to check all of my stuff and purchases home :-)

The Math books are:

"Discrete math", Susan Epp

"Discrete with Ducks"

various Calc books. If you want to learn math, find books that work for you. We all learn differently here.

My opinion: The Chan books are just amazing. Thought provoking and motivational. I am still reading the Prado book.

My opinion 2: If you ever want to slow down in life and learn what you are about, read about Buddhism. I'm not trying to start a flame war. It just works for me. It isn't being told what to believe because that is the way it is. I feel Buddhism lets me explore myself to find the right answers that work for me. Since studying my anger levels are in check. I am a better Husband. My wife comes first always.

- Code (Charles Petzold)

- Soft Skills: The Software Developer's Life Manual (John Z. Sonmez)

- Zero Bugs and Program Faster (Kate Thompson)

- Daemon (Daniel Suarez)

- Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions (Brian Christian)

- How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships (Leil Lowndes)