[TigeriusKirk]

Really? I can't think of any dev I've worked with who didn't at least have some reference books handy. Though to be fair, it's been 10 years or so since I've worked in-person with people on a daily basis, so maybe my impression is just way out of date.

I still buy the occasional programming book, but nothing like I used to now that we have all the online resources.

[iLoveOncall]

> some reference books handy

Looking at a random list [1] of O'Reilly books, I can see 3 categories:

- The ones for beginners, like "Learning Python" or "JavaScript: The Definitive Guide",

- The ones that will be outdated even before reaching the shelves of a library, such as "Kubernetes in Action" or "Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and TensorFlow",

- The ones that are more about concepts such as "Clean Code".

I can't see any of those being used as a reference book. The Internet and official documentations is the reference book.

[1] https://www.toptechskills.com/top-tech-books/

[sarchertech]

At least half the people at my current job buy technical books because we get a monthly book allowance. Whether they finish reading them is another story.

In my experience this is pretty common. Almost everywhere I’ve worked has had some kind of training budget, and most places have had fairly well attended book clubs.

[AlbertCory]

I think O'Reilly has really tried to adapt to the online revolution. I don't know how well it's worked.

[TigeriusKirk]

Thinking over my last few programming book purchases, they're really more or less textbooks. I get them for the structure they provide to in-depth learning, which usually doesn't work so well with online materials.