Coders at Work
by Peter Seibel · first published 2009
54% recommend44% neutral2% critical
Why HN recommends it
Long interviews with accomplished programmers on how they think about code, tools, and careers. Readers prize the firsthand perspective and history over consultant-style advice. Suits working developers and students.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Presents an overview of computer programming and interviews with some of the well-known programmers currently working in the field as they discuss their experiences and techniques.
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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…DOOM (David Kushner) * The simpsons and their mathematical secrets (Simon Singh) * Countdown to zero day (about stuxnet, by Kim Zetter) * Sapiens: A brief history of human kind (Yuval Noah Harari) * Coders at work (Some interviews, not all, but I enjoyed it. By Peter Seibel)
on “Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?” ↗Some I haven't seen mentioned here: 1. Coders at Work Peter Seibel does an amazing job of asking programmers questions that make them explain their methodology. The interview with Donald Knuth is awesome; really enjoyed hearing him talk about literate programming.…
on “Ask HN: Books you should have read when you start a career in SE / CS?” ↗…explanations of female orgasm fail in various ways. This is a book about evolutionary biology and its methodological soundness as much as it is about explaining female orgasm. Computer-related: Peter Seibel, Coders at Work. A fantastic collection of interview with great programmers. The one 2009 book no hacker should be without. Squeak by Example. Does a great job of explaining Smalltalk in general and Squeak in particular.
on “Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009?” ↗"I highlighted a ton of things". I haven't read Founders at Work, but I really enjoyed Coders at Work by Peter Seibel in the same series. I had the same feeling with that book - I scribbled down a lot of notes on interesting things to follow up on. My conclusion (from my review on Amazon[1]): If you…
on “Book Notes: Founders at Work” ↗'Cranky old Unix dude'? Jesus. Please read his interview in Peter Siebel's Coders at Work, it's fascinating.
on “Ask HN: What’s it like working at Facebook as a Software Engineer?” ↗Non-fiction: Coders at Work by Peter Siebel and Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston - I loved reading about the founder's stories and first-hand perspectives of notable programmers. The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain…
on “Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009?” ↗…in Crisis, something by Gerald Weinberg and something by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister (Peopleware is pretty much required reading), and The Mythical Man Month I strongly recommend them. The recent Coders At Work is really good, although at a somewhat higher level. My other recommendation is to get serious knowledge of other domains that have useful ideas and metaphors; for me that would be science in general…
on “ASK HN: How are you becoming a better programmer?” ↗…http://www.amazon.com/Soul-New-Machine-Tracy-Kidder/dp/03164... Another good option might be Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold. http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Softwa... Or, how about Coders at Work? http://www.amazon.com/Coders-Work-Reflections-Craft-Programm... Another one that I have (but haven't had time to read yet) is Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One…
on “Ask HN: What's an inspirational pop book about Computer Science?” ↗Of a similar note, but comes off very different (to me at least): Coders at work http://www.amazon.com/Coders-Work-Reflections-Craft-Programm... I'm more of a fiction kind of guy so I'll have to recommend this: Cryptonomicon http://www.amazon.com/Cryptonomicon-Neal-Stephenson/dp/B004R...…
on “Ask HN: Hacker book suggestions similar to founders at work” ↗…Bagnall (get the second edition) * The Psychology of Computer Programming by Gerald M. Weinberg - for being written in 1971 (with an updated edition in 98) it is very interesting and still relevant. * Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming by Peter Seibel - interviews of many luminary programmers, how they got stated and what they have done.
on “Ask HN: My Birthday's Tomorrow, I Need Book Recommendations” ↗I'd love a book on statistics for programmers written by Peter Seibel. I know there's Think Stats, and that's a pretty good book, but I'd be interested in a Lisper's take. PCL and Coders at Work are really great.
on “Lisp Hackers: Peter Seibel” ↗…http://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Problem... Excellent book covering interviews with founders of companies that became really big. I thought this book was really insightful and inspirational. - Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming http://www.amazon.com/Coders-Work-Reflections-Craft-Programm... I just started this book, but already like it - the format is the same as the Founders at Work…
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012” ↗…Jesus and 1st Century Judaism. Walking with God through Pain and Suffering by Timothy Keller. Made me stop and think a lot about how I interact with family and friends that have gone through struggles. Coders at Work by Peter Seibel. I enjoy learning from the experienced, and Coders At Work is a fantastic walk through the recent history of computing, as told by those who walked through it. I wish there were a true…
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2014?” ↗…to find for a lot of the cases, so simulation to the rescue. I ended up running more simulations than Peter did, with some interesting results [2]. Also, the interview with Peter Norvig in the book "Coders at Work" [3] is great - one of my favorites in the book (actually, the whole book is great). [1] http://norvig.com/SET.html [2] http://henrikwarne.com/2011/09/30/set-probabilities-revisite... [3] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1430219483/
on “Probability, Paradox, and the Reasonable Person Principle” ↗…good, and shows how useful it can be to develop one's own syntactic abstractions with the practical example of an MP3 ID3 parsing system. I can't recommend it highly enough. Peter Seibel's second book Coders at Work is also excellent. 0: http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/
on “How knowing Lisp destroyed my programming career (2006)” ↗