Before spending the last money I had on a coding book, the cashier could see my hesitation and said "don't worry, investing in yourself is never a waste of money".
Reference books are the one thing it's a good idea to spend money on, because flipping back and forth through a digital copy is still a miserable experience
If they can make flipping a finger pinch worth of pages somehow doable that would be killer. Some sort of wide-pinch gesture with a semi transparent overlay of the page you are going to flip to with your current pinch width.
A foldable reader with readable panels on each sides when you open it. You can flip pages either way. Pen for annotation if possible. Create/edit your own documents. An icon tap to overlay another document (a note, book page, research paper) so you can add to it or copy from it to the underlying panel.
A reader mode (distraction free) when simply reading. A document mode when you are doing something that requires writing (including simple annotations).
I like books and flipping through them. However if you can blend a book reader with a great note taker that would be ideal.
Funny enough VCRs had this decades ago, the double-fast-forward skipped forward a few minutes. Why e-readers can't do this with a similar symbol to skip forward 25 pages is a mystery to me.
Idk I got a grasp on programming because I spent a summer in the library with books on programming and a hard rule of not leaving for even a coffee until i have done at least a full chapter and all exercises.
I kept the phone turned off and only touched the laptop once I was ready for exercises and after 2-3 hours was too terrified to lose focus if I didn’t go straight into code.
Would have never happened with MOOC, as there would have been all kinds of drifting away. I owe my ability to hyper focus to that time
Well yes and no. Spending money on something, especially when you’re short on money, makes you value it more and overall for me this would make it more likely to actually go through that book. But that’s me.
For me it's totally irrelevant how many money I spent in how much I value something. I have numerous overpriced textbook in my shelf that I've never read, on the other end my libgen textbook are used constantly and got me through university.
Also library suggestions are great too if you can wait a few months. I usually suggest a bunch of books not just for me, but other people that might be on the same career path as me.
A personal finance author I follow (Ramit Sethi) has a book-buying rule where he has unlimited budget when it comes to buying books because if even one line resonates with you / changes your life then it becomes much more valuable than the $10-$20 you spent on the book. I presume it's aimed towards non-fiction books, but some fiction books can profoundly change your perspective on things, and that's worth the investment too.
I mostly follow that rule, but with the caveat that I must begin reading/skimming it immediately after I buy it (otherwise it will just end up in the list of books "to be read"). Yes this means that I have an embarrassing amount of started books.
Then again, the most valuable book in the world isn't the Gutenberg Bible or a first folio of Shakespeare or a handwritten draft of Principia. It's the one you need at 2 AM on a Sunday morning but don't have on your shelf.
Could be an employee/non-shareholder. It sounds like this is always good advice though unless youre on your last penny. The cashier didn’t know that though.