Ask HN: What books do you keep on your desk?

- Structure and interpretation of computer programs More by nostalgia than by need

This is a fantastic book.

This book has helped me recognize various cognitive biases and heuristics

Apart from K&R, there are very few programming books which are worthwhile

- The art of computer programmming - Hacker's delight These two are of great help when doing programming challenges.

Introduction to Algorithms (CLRS)

- Clean Code

On Writing by Stephen King. Being able to tell a story with clarity has far more utility than one would expect.

The Linux Programming Interface (Kerrisk)

"A Brief History of Time"

It's written in a more straightforward style than GEB, so it's less remarkable as a reading experience, but its perspective has stuck with me in a pretty fundamental way, so I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed GEB and wants to dig further into the puzzle of consciousness.

Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment It's often a better reference than the POSIX spec is.

Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows