Books for Computer Scientist

18 May 2014

Here are some books that are useful for new hires to read. It makes it easier to convey thoughts and ideas if everyone is on the same page.

• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs - Learn about the foundations and theory of magic
• Code Complete - How to actually write code, what they don’t teach you in school
• Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software - Your company probably has patterns in place, use them correctly.
• Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code - There is probably a lot of existing code at your company. If a change is painful, make it less painful for the next person.

Big Data

• Hadoop: The Definite Guide - Hard to do big data in a startup without using Hadoop
• Enterprise Data Workflows with Cascading - It is hard to write data flows using Hadoop, so cascading helps.

Java

• Effective Java - Hard to write Hadoop code without using Java.

Project Management

• The Mythical Man-Month - Explain why you can’t do things faster to other people.