Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution

The Soul Of A New Machine, by Tracy Kidder - The history of computing fascinates me, and this is one of my favorite books on the topic. Hackers, by Steven Levy - Again, computing history, and especially relevant to me because I started personal computing in the mid-80s and like reading about the stuff I missed. Levy is always fun to read. There are a lot of good books on the microcomputer revolution, this one is just my favorite. Bird By Bird, by Anne Lamott - It's not just a book about writing, but a book about living. Lamott is a born storyteller, and every one of her non-fiction books is inspiring and highly readable. On Writing, by Stephen King - I am not a King fan. The only fiction piece he's written I come back to is The Stand. But the story of how he became a writer, and his life as a writer, gives me hope for my own writing. And his advice is valuable; even if I don't like his books, I can't argue with his success.

I'm not sure if these books really are what you're looking for, because each of them is a mix of engineering history, and the description of how a group of people end up doing amazing things. In each of the books, there were nuggets of wisdom that I've tried to bring along with me in my job (as best I can). Like: - Doing things as simply as possible to start off - Keeping iteration time to a minimum, for maximum exploration of ideas - Being willing to think outside the box My takeaways above, hardly do these books justice, but they are as follows: - Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed [0] - Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. [1] - The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal [2] [0]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/101438.Skunk_Works [1]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56829.Hackers [2]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/722412.The_Dream_Machine

Kids and the Amiga Hackers

In no order in particular, these are good books: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/722412.The_Dream_Machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Compute... (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Computer_Revolution) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12625589-turing-s-cathed... (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12625589-turing-s-cathedral) https://openlibrary.org/books/OL27198205M/Fire_in_the_valley

That would be a long list, given that I read a lot of books and would generally say that most of the books I've read were worth investing time in to some extent. But for what it's worth, here's a subset, cribbed from my previous HN comments: Something Deeply Hidden - Sean Carroll The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets - Graham Farmelo The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth - Paul Hoffman The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan - Robert Kanigel Lost in Math - Sabine Hossenfelder The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg Hyperspace - Michio Kaku Not Even Wrong - Peter Woit The Trouble With Physics - Lee Smolin About Time - Paul Davies Time Reborn - Lee Smolin The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene The Hidden Reality - Brian Greene The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene Quantum Space: Loop Quantum Gravity and the Search for the Structure of Space, Time, and the Universe - Jim Baggott The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets - Graham Farmelo Three Roads To Quantum Gravity - Lee Smolin…

1. Hackers: Heroes of the computer revolution. 2. Kernighan & Ritchie C (I learn/interpret either something new about C or marvel the art of precise writing) 3. Harry Potter series

Crypto is likely even better than Hackers, in fact.

I also think it's a great book, but partly because it is technical. Charles is great at explaining how computers actually work with circuit diagrams from the ground up in a way that's articulate, clear, and engaging. I think I learned more from this book than I did in my CS architecture class. The historical context he puts it in helps with clarity since it's easier to understand when you know how each successive step built on the previous one. In addition to the Dream Machine, I'd also mention Steven Levy's Hackers as an obvious one to read. Some others I've read: - What the dormouse said (this one was just okay, but interesting to see some of the cultural context at the time). - Crypto (about the history of cryptography). I really liked this one, but people I've recommended it to found it dry. - In the Plex (history of Google) - Masters of Doom (John Carmack, John Romero and Id Software) Related Fiction: - Microserfs - The Soul of a New Machine - The Phoenix Project (fiction paired with the Dev Ops Handbook)

some that I read and recommend: - Turing's cathedral - Hackers: heroes of the computer revolution - masters of doom (game dev history more than cs)

I agree that it’s tough to truly grok technical material in purely audio format. With that said, I think you can learn a ton by learning about the history, trends, and other software companies. Here are some of my favorites: The Dream Machine Hackers: Heroes of the Computer a Revolution How the Internet Happened The Soul of a New Machine AI Superpowers Platform Revolution The Everything Store

Yes! 1. Masters of Doom 2. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution

Some books that I recently read and enjoyed: Non-fiction a) Sapiens (Yuval Noah Harari) b) Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon (Kim Zetter) c) Hackers: Heroes of the computer revolution (Steven Levy) d) Masters of Doom (David Kushner) Fiction: e) The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Leo Tolstoy) f) Ready Player One (Ernest Cline)

Maybe not perfect matches, but a few titles I'm familiar with that you might like: Dreaming in Code - covers Mitch Kapor's post Lotus effort to build Chandler. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreaming_in_Code Everyone Else Must Fail - all about Larry Ellison and Oracle https://www.amazon.com/Everyone-Else-Must-Fail-Unvarnished/d... (https://www.amazon.com/Everyone-Else-Must-Fail-Unvarnished/dp/0712621482) Winners, Losers & Microsoft - title says it all https://www.amazon.com/Winners-Losers-Microsoft-Competition-... (https://www.amazon.com/Winners-Losers-Microsoft-Competition-Technology/dp/0945999844) Two books by Bill Gates: Business At The Speed of Thought https://www.amazon.com/Business-Speed-Thought-Succeeding-Dig... (https://www.amazon.com/Business-Speed-Thought-Succeeding-Digital/dp/0446525685/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1527861952&sr=1-1&keywords=business+at+the+speed+of+thought) and The Road Ahead https://www.amazon.com/Road-Ahead-Completely-Up-Date/dp/0140... (https://www.amazon.com/Road-Ahead-Completely-Up-Date/dp/0140260404/ref=pd_sbs_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0140260404&pd_rd_r=ZRRXQ50NEK3EPWVC9FM9&pd_rd_w=q6Fr8&pd_rd_wg=iFPgv&psc=1&refRID=ZRRXQ50NEK3EPWVC9FM9) Also:…

You might enjoy Steven Levy's Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution[1]. It's not too focused on specific people or companies, although you'll encounter some well known people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Richard Stallman in the book. It's an interesting read because it gives you a great background that helps you understand how we ended up with the tech culture and environment we have today. In the reply to another comment, I also mentioned Coders at Work[2]. I found that it provided some great insight into the early days of some fascinating companies from a technical perspective. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Steven-Le... (https://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Steven-Levy/dp/1449388396) [2] https://www.amazon.com/Coders-Work-Reflections-Craft-Program... (https://www.amazon.com/Coders-Work-Reflections-Craft-Programming/dp/1430219483)

Last year I gave myself a Zuckerberg-style goal to read a book every two weeks. It started well, but some months were harder than others (usually when the book wasn't very good, so I would switch to podcasts for a few weeks, before getting back on track). Here's an unordered list of the best: [BUSINESS / SELF-IMPROVEMENT] - "Work Rules!" - about Google's culture and values - "Search Inside Yourself" - about mindfulness, meditation, and the impact on your life. - "What got you here won't get you there" - Liked a lot more than I expected. - "Re-read Innovator's Dilemma" - a great classic; never gets old. - "How will you measure your life" - from the same author. Also excellent. - "The Best Service is No Service" - good overview on why Amazon's customer service is so good - "Crucial Conversations" - half is common sense; half is good tips to practice everyday. [PROGRAMMING] - "Fluent Python" - was afraid it'd be too basic, but not really. Enjoyed it a lot. - "Think Complexity" - about algorithm complexity, data structures, etc. Great read. - "Python Data Science Handbook" - meh. - "Fundamentals of Deep Learning" - good intro. Helped me solidify some concepts from Andrew Ng's ML course…

Hackers & Masters of Doom are two of my favourite books. And I'm not even really a gamer.

"At Home" by Bill Bryson. "Quiet" by Susan Cain. "Hackers" by Steven Levy.

For such a community of hackers, I'm surprised nobody has brought up "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution" by Steven Levy. Maybe you've all read it already ;)

- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig - Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy

Hackers is an excellent book, probably should be required reading for anyone into the programmer/entrepreneur lifestyle, or wannabe. It gave me my first moment where I was reading a book and thought, "Yes. That's what I want to be doing. What they're doing. But me," when reading about some of the first computer game companies like Sierra, early Electronic Arts, early Apple, etc. Especially the story of Ken and Roberta Williams. As a kid, I was using the software and hardware made by the folks described in those stories and felt that when I grew up I also wanted to be my own boss, and make and sell my own stuff. Make, sell, repeat. All other BS minimized.

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers_Heroes_of_the_Computer_... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers_Heroes_of_the_Computer_Revolution)

Hackers, by Steven Levy is a great book too.

"Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution" by Steven Levy. It's not technical, but it is very much about computers.

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, Steven Levy