Books I’ve read recently

12.04.10 – 16:23

Following are some of the books i’ve read recently which made a big impression on me. Ask me if you can lent one

The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki Even though this excellent book focuses on start-up culture, venture capital and the like a lot of it’s principles can be applied to other things as well. It made me want to start a band again. And it is highly entertaining to read.

The Passionate Programmer by Chad Fowler This book focuses on how to be a happy person by being a happy programmer. It has put a some more perspective to my life in the tech world …

Getting Real by 37signals The book by the makers of Ruby on Rails and a bunch of awesome webapps focuses on cutting all the unneeded stuff from your process and programs to focus on the real stuff (= creating value for your customers and yourself). Some call their methods radical but I think the approach is highly feasible. But it also means cutting through a lot of corperate bullshit everybody believes is the right way to do it. The successor Rework is still lying on my table and i’m keen on reading that one as well …

The Big Switch by Nicholas Carr The books main thesis is that computer technology will become an utility just like power supply has become. It acutally is what we call “Cloud Computing” today. The book is highly entertaining and puts the current developments in an historical big picture.

Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction from Oxford Very Short Introductions I wish I would have read this book at the beginning of my studies. It shows what Math is really good for: Helping people to think.