David Heinemeier Hansson

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“The fundamental before/after book. Here’s some code that could be better, here’s how to make it better. The trick to reading this book is to carefully read through every single refactoring pattern and then try to apply it on your code base (you don’t have to commit if it doesn’t fix things). You can’t just blow through it or you won’t really learn it. And you can’t just say “oh, I’ll look up a refactoring when I need it” — because then you don’t know what to look for.”

“Five books that taught me about myself Finding Flow: Happiness is absorption Meditations: Reactions are a choice Punished by Rewards: Only intrinsic motivation lasts Man’s Search for Meaning: Fortune is finding a purpose On the shortness of Life: Life is long enough”

“This reminded me that I needed to recommend the fantastic book The Management Myth by Matthew Stewart. In it, you get the bullshit history of Scientific Management, along with an exposé on just the kind of fraud that its popularizer, F. Winslow Taylor.”

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“I always have a handful of books going at the same time. I’m just at the tail end of Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard. It’s the first original text by Kierkegaard that I’ve worked my way through, even though you think that as a Dane I’d be nationally obligated to read the great philosopher. So making up for lost time! What got me interested in Kierkegaard was his position as one of the pivotal figures in the Existentialist branch of philosophy. I had already read Satre and Camus and really enjoyed that perspective, as both a contrast and a compliment to the Stoic philosophy books I’ve spent the last five years diving into so deeply.”

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“I just completed Escape from Freedom by Erich Fromm. That’s probably one of my favorite books from the last few years. It’s written in 1941, and traces the psychological evolution of going from feudal, primary bonds of old to our modern age of being disconnected yet “free”. It’s obviously influenced heavily by the Fascist regimes at the time, but its diagnosis feels as timely today as it did then. Truly a spectacular and imminently readable book.”