
Ask HN: What books will stay relevant for many years to come? - shubhamjain
I just finished reading, The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman and it is just amazing how the author has laid down principles of design that will stay relevant for many years even if the technology will change drastically.<p>What are books like this which will stay relevant for a long period of time?
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idoh
A quick heuristic is that older books that are still relevant today are more
likely to remain relevant in the future. I don't know much about design books,
but I would bet on Tufte books to remain relevant for a long time. Any really
old book that is still in print would be a good candidate, and the older the
more likely to stay relevant.

Other books that will be around for decades (or more) (to pick some non design
things): The Bible, SICP, Feynman's Lectures, How to Win Friends and Influence
People, Shakespeare.

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veddox
Having done a paper on cyber war for school, I was surprised to find that the
two books that were quoted most often by war theorists were Carl von
Clausewitz's "Vom Kriege" and Sun-Tzu's "The Art of War" \- one is 200 years
old, the other 2000...

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rajnikant
If you are asking about the general books then the one which has been relevant
from 5000 years and will always be relevant in future also is _Bhagwat Gita_

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thorin
Code complete and mythical man month stand up very well. As does K and R as a
lesson in concise documentation even if it's a little outdated technically.

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taprun
Any book light on specifics (tactics) but heavy on theory (strategy) will age
better because it will be less effected by changing circumstances.

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LarryMade2
The Psychology of Computer Programming seems to be holing up well from its
first publishing in 1971.

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simulo
Do you mean books in general or books on design and/or psychology, like
Norman’s?

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magic_beans
An algorithms book.

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collyw
Its good to have an idea of algorihms, but in this day and age, only so you
know the correct library to choose.

