Republic

Heart of darkness is very short and fits into those great books like L'Etranger and the Old Man and the Sea that can be usefully read in an afternoon and give back way more than they demand from you. Republic is quite long but very approachable and I really enjoyed it. Again the mythical man month still holds true and it very readable. It's interesting for anyone interested in computing history as well as for it's key points on management.

Meditations - Marcus Aurelius Republic - Plato Laws - Cicero National System of Political Economy - Friedrich List Man and Technics - Oswald Spengler The Bible

Everyone should read a platonic dialogue. Plato's Republic in particular due to its influence on western thought. Although some of the ideas may seem absurd from our modern point of view, it's still thought provoking and a good example of old school philosophy. Also, Plato casually outlines why our current system of government is doomed to fail...which is probably pretty important to understand.

The book I've reread the most is The Odyssey. For a long time, I've read it once every year. Another book I've read many times is Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. I've read Asimov's cycle of Foundation many times. Don't know how many, actually. I've also read several times some philosophy classics, particularly Plato's Symposium, Phaedrus, Apology and Republic. Then there are many books that I've read at least twice, almost all considered classics (from 1984 to LoTR, Great expectations to Tom Sawyer, Crime and punishment to Twenty thousand leagues under the sea, etc).

The synoptic gospels and NT, but to choose one book from the NT, ... The Epistle of James - as it has some strong counterpoints to other parts of the NT particularly the contrast of Pauline notions of grace with charity/works. Emperor's New Mind, Penrose - probably my biggest take away from it was to consider how human perception works alongside, and co-mingles with, physics. Web of Life, Capra - considering holistic nature of life, one's connection to the World at large; emergent patterns, complex structure birthing from simplicity (goes well with what I recall of Gleick's Chaos). Zen and the Art ... - what is value, what is valuable to me, whither/whence/wherefore value; how should I relate to my children (long before i had any) and how to challenge them philosophically. Republic, Plato - the first book that really set me thinking about the structure of society, about inequalities. And of course about stepping out of The Cave.…

Not really non-fiction, but Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is always a good read. Also if you're just interested in 'stuff', Plato's The Republic is very worth reading : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_... (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_%28Plato%29

The Four Steps To The Epiphany - Steve Blank Neuromancer - William Gibson Predictable Revenue - Aaron Ross, Marylou Tyler The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand The Ultimate Question 2.0 - Fred Reichheld‎ The Singularity is Near - Ray Kurzweil Moonshot! - John Sculley Zero To One - Peter Thiel Republic - Plato Meditations - Marcus Aurelius Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury The Mysterious Island - Jules Verne Discipline of Market Leaders - Michael Treacy, Fred Wiersema False Memory - Dean Koontz NOS4A2- Joe Hill Revival - Stephen King Barbarians At The Gate - John Helyar and Bryan Burrough Into Thin Air - John Krakauer How To Measure Anything - Douglas Hubbard and any collection of the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

Being a programmer, you've probably felt the appeal of Platonism, so I'd recommend a couple of his dialogues: Phaedrus, Symposium, and the Republic (in order of length, short to long, since they are pretty dense). I'd also recommend reading the Republic last, so you can get over the misconceptions you were probably taught in high school. Allan Bloom's Closing of the American Mind is also very enlightening for a) understanding the goals of the enlightenment, and b) understanding the current state of our culture.

- Tipping point (creates a urgency feeling) - Built to last (tips and best practices) - Blink (helps not to waste ideas, shows how your first impressions/thoughts could be useful) - Phylosophy Books (Republic and Politics) - you can understand and have good insights about this social networking and community fever moment. Anything you could read regarding usability, interfaces and scalability would help a lot when dealing with low money web2 related startups. To know about extreme programming would be very good.