The public parts of my notebook.
Clean Code, Robert C. Martin
Lots of applicable advice.
The Software Craftsman, Sandro Mancuso
Apprenticeship Patterns, Dave Hoover and Adewale Oshineye
Practical Object Oriented Programming in Ruby, Sandi Metz
Describes a useful toolkit for writing OO programs.
Infinite Loop, Michael Malone
I wanted this to be more about design and less about business.
How Children Fail, John Holt
Lucid accounts of the practicalities of helping children learn. Gold dust.
Make it Stick, Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger and Mark A. McDaniel
Techniques for how to learn topics well enough to apply them.
Going Solo, Roald Dahl
A very interesting account of when Dahl was a fighter pilot in WW2.
Reinventing Organizations, Frederic Laloux
The Design of Everyday Things, Donald Norman
Half of it is about systems for formally analysing designs. Half of it is examples. Pretty good.
Envisioning Information, Edward Tufte
Many examples of visualisations, with analysis and evaluation. I wanted this to include a system to use when designing visualisations.
Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari
Loved the parts about anthropology. Didn’t like the whirlwind tour of societies.
Do No Harm, Henry Marsh
The essay about an operation to repair an aneurysm is very interesting and exciting. Most of the rest of the book is boring reflections on foolish hospital practices.
Dealers of Lightning, Michael A. Hiltzik
A good overview of XEROX PARC. I wanted more about the technology and less about the personalities.
Spelunky, Derek Yu
Eloquent Ruby, Russ Olsen
A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
Blew my mind. The first novel I’ve enjoyed in many years. So restrained and careful.
The Process of Education, Jerome Bruner
Amazing ideas about intuition, spiraling, and how all learning should be about getting to the structural truth of a topic. I adored his idea that children who are studying a topic should be doing the same activities as an expert researcher. Little physicists in white coats and safety goggles.
#notebook #medianotes