Here are 100 books that Building a Second Brain fans have personally recommended if you like
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I have advised thousands of developers on their career journey and have always been shocked at how many people don’t have a good sherpa on their path if they didn’t luck out with a good boss or industry friends to help them find their way. I think everyone deserves a third path other than work and immediate friends to figure out their career journey and I think the right books and online mentors can accelerate your career if you feel stuck in a local minima.
People judge your career success not just by your individual capabilities, but by the impact of the companies you have worked at.
Jeff Bezos is not strictly a developer, but arguably is the person who has most benefited from the rise of the Internet. Understanding the origin story of Amazon and AWS and how to maneuver your career within the bigger picture of tech megatrends is critical toward picking the right companies and projects to work on.
Medical information sciences are emerging as a vital field of study and practice. The subsequent explosion of data-- in administration, research, diagnosis, and treatment--along with the associated costs of maintenance, have become overwhelming. The volume brings together scholars and practitioners from disciplines concerned with the acquisition, analysis, accessibility, and application of information in medical practice and health care. The book is divided into five sections: the first part provides an overview of the field in general; the second deals with the problem of retrieval; the third part examines the control of health costs; the fourth focuses on medical decision support;…
I taught myself to code back in 1994 while working the graveyard shift as a geologist in the environmental industry. My job consisted of sitting in a chair during the dark hours of the night in a shopping center in Stockton, CA, watching another geologist take samples from wells in the parking lot. A friend of mine suggested I learn to code because I liked computers. I don’t mean to make this out to be a “it’s so simple anyone can do it!” You need to have a relentless drive to learn, which is why I wrote my book, The Imposter’s Handbook - as an active step to learning what I didn’t know I didn’t know.
This book makes me jealous as the author has an incredible ability to communicate the densest of topics (Cryptography) in an engaging, wonderful way.
It draws you in and you find yourself transported to battlefields and war rooms of the past. I’ve always taken cryptography for granted - I type httpsinto my browser and navigate to a site and all’s well. I know things are reasonably secure - but why?
It turns out that RSA, the algorithm that underpins things like SSL and SSH, is a landmark of human achievement and did something that millennia of mathematicians and scientists could not: provide secure, end-to-end encryption. A wonderful story.
In his first book since the bestselling Fermat's Enigma, Simon Singh offers the first sweeping history of encryption, tracing its evolution and revealing the dramatic effects codes have had on wars, nations, and individual lives. From Mary, Queen of Scots, trapped by her own code, to the Navajo Code Talkers who helped the Allies win World War II, to the incredible (and incredibly simple) logisitical breakthrough that made Internet commerce secure, The Code Book tells the story of the most powerful intellectual weapon ever known: secrecy.
Throughout the text are clear technical and mathematical explanations, and portraits of the remarkable…
I taught myself to code back in 1994 while working the graveyard shift as a geologist in the environmental industry. My job consisted of sitting in a chair during the dark hours of the night in a shopping center in Stockton, CA, watching another geologist take samples from wells in the parking lot. A friend of mine suggested I learn to code because I liked computers. I don’t mean to make this out to be a “it’s so simple anyone can do it!” You need to have a relentless drive to learn, which is why I wrote my book, The Imposter’s Handbook - as an active step to learning what I didn’t know I didn’t know.
This book is extremely cringy, but that’s the entire point.
The author has studied powerful figures from the past and examined the things they did to wield enormous power and “play the game”. Reading through this book takes a particular focus, and for me it was trying to understand what other peoplewere up to - specifically my coworkers.
Humans are a competitive bunch - it’s the simple truth - and the key to getting ahead at work is to see how you’re being manipulated to another’s advantage. If you plan on moving up in your career you’re going to need to be armed with a basic understanding of the Human Chess Game because it’s everywhere.
The Bad Bosses and Crappy Coworkers of the world are reading this book and using it as a guide to get ahead - but that becomes meaningless if you can spot their tricks and…
Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this multi-million-copy New York Times bestseller is the definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control – from the author of The Laws of Human Nature.
In the book that People magazine proclaimed “beguiling” and “fascinating,” Robert Greene and Joost Elffers have distilled three thousand years of the history of power into 48 essential laws by drawing from the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Carl Von Clausewitz and also from the lives of figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to P.T. Barnum.
My career journey started as an HR trainee in Karachi, Pakistan, and ended as the head of HR at two major companies. Across 31 years, I have worked for blue-chip companies like The Gillette Company, P&G, and Del Monte, building my own and observing firsthand many extraordinary careers. Unfortunately, for every person I observed who built a fantastic career, I have seen many more feel unsuccessful and unfulfilled in their careers. This is why I am passionate about using my knowledge and experience to help people navigate the challenges of the modern workplace and to provide them with the tools and strategies necessary to create their own extraordinary careers.
I absolutely love this book because it is not just another career book; it is a paradigm shift.
Newport's approach challenged my perspective on passion and career fulfillment. His emphasis on skill development resonated deeply with me, especially as someone who believes in continuous growth.
I like the evidence-based blueprint he provides, and I found the book's insights to be practical and actionable, making it a valuable resource for anyone seeking career success on their own terms.
Cal Newport's clearly-written manifesto flies in the face of conventional wisdom by suggesting that it should be a person's talent and skill -- and not necessarily their passion -- that determines their career path. Newport, who graduated from Dartmouth College (Phi Beta Kappa) and recently earned a PhD. from MIT, contends that trying to find what drives us, instead of focusing on areas in which we naturally excel, is ultimately harmful and frustrating to job seekers. The title is a direct quote from comedian Steve Martin who, when once asked why he was successful in his career, immediately replied: "Be…
I have advised thousands of developers on their career journey and have always been shocked at how many people don’t have a good sherpa on their path if they didn’t luck out with a good boss or industry friends to help them find their way. I think everyone deserves a third path other than work and immediate friends to figure out their career journey and I think the right books and online mentors can accelerate your career if you feel stuck in a local minima.
With his success at Uber, Stripe, and Calm, Will Larson is probably one of the best-known and current senior engineering leaders writing clear and well-researched advice on developer careers.
StaffEng brings together senior individual contributors from across the industry and strings together the best of their advice. In particular, Will’s elaboration of the 4 types of Staff Engineer is the first time this has been spelled out anywhere on the internet.
At most technology companies, you'll reach Senior software engineer, the career level for software engineers, in five to eight years. At the career level, your company's career ladder won't require that you work towards the next promotion; being promoted further is an exception rather than expected. This is also when many engineers are first given an opportunity to move into engineering management. Over the past few years, we've seen a flurry of books unlocking the engineering management career path, like Camille Fournier's The Manager's Path, Julie Zhuo's The Making of a Manager, Lara Hogan's Resilient Management, and even my own…
I have advised thousands of developers on their career journey and have always been shocked at how many people don’t have a good sherpa on their path if they didn’t luck out with a good boss or industry friends to help them find their way. I think everyone deserves a third path other than work and immediate friends to figure out their career journey and I think the right books and online mentors can accelerate your career if you feel stuck in a local minima.
If Staff Engineer is the book for individual contributors, The Manager’s Path is the definitive guide to the engineering management career track, which discusses the unique challenges and responsibilities that come with each phase of a manager’s career, from mentoring to leading to managing one to many teams, managing managers, and executive leadership as a CTO or VP.
Managing people is difficult wherever you work. But in the tech industry, where management is also a technical discipline, the learning curve can be brutal-especially when there are few tools, texts, and frameworks to help you. In this practical guide, author Camille Fournier (tech lead turned CTO) takes you through each stage in the journey from engineer to technical manager. From mentoring interns to working with senior staff, you'll get actionable advice for approaching various obstacles in your path. This book is ideal whether you're a new manager, a mentor, or a more experienced leader looking for fresh advice. Pick…
A fresh take on the difference between trauma and hardship in order to help accurately spot the difference and avoid over-generalizations.
The book integrates the latest findings in brain science, child development, psycho-social context, theory, and clinical experiences to make the case that trauma is much more than a cluster…
I taught myself to code back in 1994 while working the graveyard shift as a geologist in the environmental industry. My job consisted of sitting in a chair during the dark hours of the night in a shopping center in Stockton, CA, watching another geologist take samples from wells in the parking lot. A friend of mine suggested I learn to code because I liked computers. I don’t mean to make this out to be a “it’s so simple anyone can do it!” You need to have a relentless drive to learn, which is why I wrote my book, The Imposter’s Handbook - as an active step to learning what I didn’t know I didn’t know.
This isn’t a coding book - it’s more about getting your mind in the right place so you can focus and unleash one of your amazing superpowers: your creativity.
This book literally changed my life a year ago, as I was on year two of recovering from a heart-breaking divorce. Long story short: the tools is about action, not theory. Dr. Phil Stutz is turning the field of psychology upside down with his approach to offering actual tools to get through your problems rather than digging deeper into what makes you think the way you do.
He just doesn’t care about your childhood - instead he wants you to have the tools you need to let go of what holds you back, which is a key for self-taught programmers so they can avoid the dreaded Imposter Syndrome.
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ''I love the life these tools have allowed me to have' - JONAH HILL, director of Stutz
Change can begin right now. Learn to bring about dynamic personal growth using five uniquely effective tools- from psychotherapist Barry Michels and psychiatrist Phil Stutz, subject of the Netflix documentary Stutz, directed by Jonah Hill.
Can you imagine what your life would be like if you could tap into a new source of power - one that has been inside you all along - to solve your own problems and become the master of your life?
I taught myself to code back in 1994 while working the graveyard shift as a geologist in the environmental industry. My job consisted of sitting in a chair during the dark hours of the night in a shopping center in Stockton, CA, watching another geologist take samples from wells in the parking lot. A friend of mine suggested I learn to code because I liked computers. I don’t mean to make this out to be a “it’s so simple anyone can do it!” You need to have a relentless drive to learn, which is why I wrote my book, The Imposter’s Handbook - as an active step to learning what I didn’t know I didn’t know.
You’ve heard of Einstein, Turing, Newton, and Hawking - but do you know who Claude Shannon is? Would you be surprised if I told you that he’s probably done more for our current way of life than all of the others combined? It’s true, and it’s unbelievable.
Claude Shannon was a quiet, quirky man who had what you might call The Most Genius Move of the last foreveryears: he took an obscure discipline of mathematics (Boolean Algebra) and applied it to electrical circuits, creating the digital circuit in the process. If you’ve ever wondered how 1s and 0s are turned into if statements and for loops - well here you go.
Oh, but that’s just the beginning. Dr. Shannon took things much further when he described how these 1s and 0s could be transmitted from point A to point B without loss of data. This was a big problem…
Winner of the Neumann Prize for the History of Mathematics
**Named a best book of the year by Bloomberg and Nature**
**'Best of 2017' by The Morning Sun**
"We owe Claude Shannon a lot, and Soni & Goodman’s book takes a big first step in paying that debt." —San Francisco Review of Books
"Soni and Goodman are at their best when they invoke the wonder an idea can instill. They summon the right level of awe while stopping short of hyperbole." —Financial Times
"Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman make a convincing case for their subtitle while reminding us that Shannon…
I came to writing after twenty years of working with dreams, so I already had lots of techniques for coming and going easily between the everyday world and the inner worlds of imagination, and I’m sure that’s why I’ve never suffered from any creative blocks or anxieties. In a career spanning 30 years, I have written about 150 books, both fiction and non-fiction, for children and adults, and scores of articles including a monthly column in Writing Magazine. I have taught creative workshops for major writing organisations such as The Society of Authors, The Arvon Foundation, and The Scattered Authors’ Society, and I offer a varied programme of courses independently throughout the year.
This is one of only a few books I’ve found that looks directly at the way writers can use dream awareness in their creative practice. It’s a collection of interviews with twenty-six well-known authors compiled by dream researcher and radio-show host Naomi Epel, in which they talk about specific dreams that have inspired them and their thoughts about dreaming in general. I bought a copy to dip into on the train to London for a meeting but found it so fascinating, I abandoned my plan to do some sightseeing afterward, and made instead for the nearest bench and takeaway coffee, to spend the afternoon reading.
As they discuss their dreams--both sleeping and waking--with Naomi Epel, the 26 writers in this intriguing book create a portrait of the creative process that is more candid than most autobiographies and more inspiring than any guide to writing.
My book is a collection of monthly Editor-in-Chief letters to the readership of World Neurosurgery, a journal that I edit. Each essay is short and sweet. The letters were written for neurosurgeons but have been re-edited so that they apply to all human beings. They cover topics such as leadership,…
I am an award-winning art director, creative mentor, and print and pattern designer with nearly two decades of experience working successfully in the creative industries. As a young person, I loved drama, dance, and art, and was constantly bursting with creative passion. As I grew older, I faced doubt from the people around me about pursuing a creative career. I stubbornly pursued it anyway and ignored the naysayers who told me to “stop dreaming” or to “get a real job.” I am now described as a “powerhouse” in the design world and someone who fearlessly strives forward in her creative career and helps thousands around the world to believe in their own creative power.
What I loved most about Conscious Creativity is just how much it really opened up my creative curiosity to the world around me. Seeking inspiration from my surroundings has always been something I do for my creative practice, but after reading this I feel like my ability to do that is on another level.
I’m noticing the creative beauty and potential in so many more things, from the spill of my tea to a leaf I’ve found on a trail. I feel like I can see, hear, and touch so much more to inspire my daily practice, so I couldn’t be more grateful for this book.
"Full of tips and tricks on how to look at the world with a curious eye, it's a brilliant way to breathe creativity (back) into our lives." - Flow magazine
"Crammed with practical ideas, inspirational images & creative exercises, Conscious Creativity leads the reader through the process of establishing what kind of creative you are..."-Mslexia
"The purpose of this book is to enable you to look at things in an alternative and more substantial way, so that you arrive at composition through genuine interest."-Juno magazine
"Philippa Stanton is passionate about people connecting to their innate creativity and has distilled these…
