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by wyclif 893 days ago
I have a gigantic Dropbox folder with hundreds of PDF tech books that I am slowly working through. The focus is on the canonical and classic over the hippest or latest new thing. There have been a number of books that I read when they were fairly new that are classics now, like some of the Wiley titles on networking. It's one of the best things you can do for your career. Whenever you have some extended downtime, instead of hopping on social media and doomscrolling, open up this folder and keep working through books you need to read and understand.
3 comments

I did the complete opposite: I threw away almost all my books, digital or physical. I now restrict myself to having two books I’m actively reading at a time, one fiction and one non-fiction. If I reach the final 15% of either one I allow myself to buy a new book, not before. This has massively increased the number of finished books.

I found having a Dropbox folder with hundreds of books to be both completely useless and paralyzing. I kept switching books, or i was unable to pick one due to too much choice and ended up just scrolling instagram or Reddit.

It is true that for it to work you need to have enough discipline to not get distracted by the other books, sticking to one title until you finish it or at least extract the optimal value out of it.
Read the Mythical Man Month. If you have ever managed a software project, it will ring true and right like really good mythology. Write down pithy parts to steal for future slides in presentations to management.
Is that a sharable folder?