Read any good books lately?

[sundialsvc4]

What do you read, when you’re on the plane or waiting for a backup to finish or whatever the else you do?   I mean, besides “The Camel Book?”   Stuff that really gets you thinking, either about the business we are in, or the businesses we work for?

May I suggest a few, to start?

The Long Tail, by Chis Anderson (http://www.amazon.com/Long-Tail-Future-Business-Selling/dp/B001Q9E9F6).   The tag line of this book is “Why the future of business is selling less of more.”   Extending this idea, say, to websites, this might explain why, even though there are bigger and bigger “brand-name” sites, there are also more sites out there than ever before.   I’m starting on my third re-reading of this one ...

Managing the Mechanism, by Vince North (http://www.amazon.com/Managing-Mechanism-Software-Successfully-ebook/dp/B00ANYTJZA), an interesting apparently Kindle-only take that basically says that the reason why software is so hard to manage, is that software’s so different.   Pleasantly little methodology-bashing.   He takes the position that software is a mechanism, always doing whatever it does under its own pre-programmed direction, and that most software projects fail due to project management approaches which do not take the implications of this into account.   (A thought-provoking idea ...)

How to Build Your Own Website for Free, by Charlie Morelli (http://www.amazon.com/Build-Your-Mobile-Site-Less/dp/1479262781).   Okay, so I like “Kindle freebies,” but lately I have gathered quite a few books that make this point in various ways, – and frankly, they all are beginning to scare me a little.   I mean, you really can do a lot of the stuff that businesses actually want, including mobile-app stuff, for free now.   Even though there will always be a demand for heavy-hitting back-end coding, like we are all used to doing, I perceive a sharp reduction in the notion that a web-site and the programming that used to go into it is still worth tens of thousands of dollars.   I openly fear that there is developing in our business an over-supply of workers that coincides with a sharp reduction(!) in demand.

Anyway, there’s three.   Any good ones from you that you think we programmer-types all should be reading on these cold winter nights?   What do you think of what they said?

[punch_card_don]

How to Build Your Own Website for Free

In 1979 I was paid nearly a month to write a program that would do a linear regression of experimental data and draw a graph of the resulting line on an x-y plotter. Just a few years later, a $100 calculator would do the same thing.

So, yes, it is highly likely that you will eventually see websites commodified to the point that they are produced by children's toys.

But - there will always be something else to program. The skill is not "website programming", it's just "programming".

[technojosh]

This is the first in a group of books I'm aiming to read on "Automation" this year:

Race Against The Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy

[sundialsvc4]

An intriguing-sounding book, to be sure.   Thanks for the recommend.   I am interested by any book that gets a “one-, two-, or three-star” review that itself goes on for several pages ... because it means to me that, even though the reader may have come away from the book disagreeing with it in some way, or in some way finding it wanting, the book nonetheless made him think.   (I usually zero-in on those reviews first, and generally skip the effusion – “thanks, Mom” – altogether.)

[DrHyde]

I read very few techie books these days, and fewer businessy books. The last ones that I read were The Art of Unit Testing (which I recommend to all of you) and Toyota Production System. I mostly read for pleasure nowadays, and review almost all of what I read here.

OK, I confess, I read the book on the Toyota Production System for pleasure too, because I'm just that kind of nerd.

[cavac]

Well, one book i'm currently reading is The Complete Yes Minister: http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Minister-Jonathan-Lynn/dp/0563206659. This is the the book version of the BBC comedy series. It really gives a nice insight why neither government nor management ever achieves something.

Of course, my most read document of the past years has been RFC2616: Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1.

[Swalif]

I have some programming books to read but they are all well known for the users here. However, on the other hand I am planning to read some books which I delayed for some time now but I am really looking forward to read them especially for the good reviews I've read about them:
How to Read a Book
The Stone Boy and Other Stories
Moon walking with Einstein
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character)

[topher]

I read Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! a few months ago. Very interesting and entertaining read. Definitely worth it.

[BrowserUk]

I just obtained Software for Infrastructure by Bjarne Stroustrup.

I'm only part way into reading it and I already think it should be obligatory reading for all programmers. Including (even especially) those of us that think we've seen it all.

[hdb]

Currently reading http://10print.org/ which I find entertaining and with a high nerd factor. Lot of talk about Commodore C64 of which I have a lot of good memories.

It contains a lot of deviations as well into random numbers, arts, etc. Not too technical.

[choroba]

Blatant self promotion: Re^2: Random maze generator

The book seems nice. I might try to read it, too, having a lot of good memories of Commodore 116/16.

[hdb]

Having seen your maze generator I am wondering whether you are among the authors of the book...