Ask HN: What book is considered the bible of your field/industry? - machtesh
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myexploit2700
Security Engineering - A guide to building dependable distributed systems
[http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/book.html](http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/book.html)

It is hilarious and informative! Described in more detail here:
[https://hackernoon.com/how-to-become-a-
hacker-e0530a355cad](https://hackernoon.com/how-to-become-a-
hacker-e0530a355cad)

~~~
perfmode
Thanks for the link.

Op, excellent question.

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garethsprice
The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth is probably the closest to an
actual bible for computer scientists - hardly anybody's read it all the way
through, people quote bits of it out of context for their own ends and it
mostly sits on shelves looking impressive while gathering dust.

The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks for tech management.

Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy for advertising/marketing
industry.

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by the "Gang of
Four" for OOP software engineering.

~~~
CreativeLicense
From somebody that has actually read the first 3 of TAoCP, it isn't worth it.
Don't get me wrong, it was fun and it gives some bragging rights, but I can
count on one hand the number of times I'd actually have had use of the
knowledge.

I've used them to look up some details when needed though.

~~~
grzm
Would you share some of the topics or details that you have found useful?

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claroscuro
The C Programming Language -- Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie.

Comprehensive, concise, and beautifully written.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_C_Programming_Language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_C_Programming_Language))

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VenkiPhy6
The Art of electronics by Hill & Horowitz for electronics

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Electronics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Electronics)

~~~
itamarst
I took the class at Harvard created by the authors of this. As they pointed
out, it's not a textbook, it's a reference book. So it's very hard to _learn_
electronics by reading it.

~~~
justin66
Any opinion on the companion volume the same authors created last year,
_Learning the Art of Electronics: A Hands-On Lab Course_?

~~~
itamarst
Haven't read it, but: the class was amazing and _difficult_. There was an
older lab notes companion book we used, but mostly it was "Professor draws a
circuit, explains it via a metaphor, along with a rule of thumb or two... now
go build a thing". Like learning a foreign language through total immersion.

So I can't speak to this particular book, but I can say that there's a (a)
decent chance it's quite good and (b) expect to do a lot of work if you want
to really understand this stuff.

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azeirah
Godel Escher Bach is fairly bible-ish if you ask me

Another set of books I consider to be "one" bible are Edward Tufte's (1) The
Visual Display of Quantitative Information, (2) Envisioning Information, (3)
Visual Explanations and (4) Beautiful Evidence.

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justinucd
Don Norman - The Design of Everyday Things

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machtesh
This is exactly the kind of book I had in mind when I posted the question.
It's scary how often I think about it, especially when going through doors.

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deltux
The Elements of Statistical Learning, by Hastie, Tibshirani and Friedman, for
everything on Machine Learning and Statistics. Available for free online:
[https://statweb.stanford.edu/~tibs/ElemStatLearn/](https://statweb.stanford.edu/~tibs/ElemStatLearn/)

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zhte415
The Toyota Way. Yet despite repackaging upon repackaging of ideas in the book,
sagely picked up in the book itself as if repackaged being ineffective, many
corporate environments can beat the drum but not walk the walk, especially in
long-term people-related aspects.

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Arcten
Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills is the de facto reference book for most
serious mountaineers

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chauhankiran
In Security ( or more precisely in Cryptography ) - Applied Cryptography by
Bruce Schneier

[https://www.schneier.com/books/applied_cryptography/](https://www.schneier.com/books/applied_cryptography/)

~~~
JoachimSchipper
This is old, and widely recommended against (e.g.
[https://sockpuppet.org/blog/2013/07/22/applied-practical-
cry...](https://sockpuppet.org/blog/2013/07/22/applied-practical-
cryptography/), if you trust tptacek.)

It's still a good reference manual for 90's crypto, and very useful if you
want to know what mistakes to expect when reviewing crypto code; but you
_really_ shouldn't read the book as a handbook unless you have enough
knowledge to spot the many, many parts that will lead you astray. (tptacek's
page, linked earlier, has a bit of an overview.)

~~~
chauhankiran
Yes I know even Bruce has accepted this[0]. But, it is still Bible for Crypto.
you will not find that much resources and ref. link in any other crypto book
than this.

[0].
[https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/11/free_cryptogr...](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/11/free_cryptograp.html#c638991)

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Humdeee
I will skip the tech stuff and go with a top hobby:

Advanced Marathoning, 2nd Edition - Pete Pfitzinger, Scott Douglas

It's heavier on the biology and human kinetics in a way that I don't need a
bachelors in a hard science to understand and is quite well known now to
serious runners. I read it every year as a motivator and to reinforce the
importance of training smart.

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jabv
When I studied cello performance in college, my professor would joke that the
40 David Popper etudes were my new bible. However, I think a copy of Bach's
six cello suites is a better match.

In my work in math education, there are many possibilities, but I think
Polya's "How to Solve It" is a strong contender.

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cableshaft
_The Art of Computer Game Design_ by Chris Crawford was the first book on the
theory computer and video games. It's got quite a few ideas in there that are
still relevant today.

But I don't think it's comprehensive or constantly referenced by those in the
industry (it's almost forgotten about by modern designers, I bet). I think a
closer fit to a 'bible of the field' would be _The Art of Game Design: A Book
of Lenses_ by Jesse Schell. Lots of good information about what to think
about, and you can even buy a deck of tarot-sized cards that has a compiled
list of all the questions the book invites you to raise when thinking about
your game on them.

I'm still waiting for something similar that focuses more on board game design
specifically, but a lot of the Book of Lenses can be applied to board games as
well.

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chrstphrknwtn
The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Typographic_St...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Typographic_Style)

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mrskitch
Not the Bible in its typical sense, but Crockfords "JavaScript: The Good
Parts". It's like the Bible in that I seem to learn something new on every
read through, and it's fairly quick to do so

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urbannomad
On Food And Cooking: The Science And Lore Of The Kitchen by Harold McGee

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Isamu
This a thousand times. It especially resonates with a geek outside of the
field, as it explains all the mysterious science that is completely
overstepped by every other source.

Cookbooks on the other hand are prescriptive - they direct you to do this,
don't ask why. Don't deviate ... unless you can get away with it, in which
case go ahead.

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tylercubell
For pianists, I think many would agree with Hans von Bülow when he called
Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier the "The Old Testament" and Beethoven's 32
Piano Sonatas the "The New Testament".

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_von_B%C3%BClow#Quotations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_von_B%C3%BClow#Quotations)

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c64e7c165b9a40b
Not exactly a field/industry, but in the Commodore 64 demoscene it would be
the "VIC Article", which is a nickname for "The MOS 6567/6569 video controller
(VIC-II)" by Christian Bauer:

[http://www.zimmers.net/cbmpics/cbm/c64/vic-
ii.txt](http://www.zimmers.net/cbmpics/cbm/c64/vic-ii.txt)

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brudgers
_Ten Books of Architecture_ which, for better or worse and perhaps suggestive
of the level scientific basis for contemporary architectural practice, was
written contemporaneously with many of the events later described in the
Christian Bible...though from a practical standpoint of running a firm, _The
Prince_ might be more apropos.

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dTal
For work:

Principles of Digital Audio, by Ken Pohlmann

For play:

Handbook of Model Rocketry, by G. Harry Stine.

(p.s. if anyone has any suggestions for the field of imaging, I'd love to hear
them as I don't know of a good imaging "bible".)

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itsdevlin
The Great Book of BASE - BASE Jumping, written by Matt Gerdes

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bmcooley
SMAD - "Space Mission Analysis and Design". The latest edition is "Space
Mission Engineering - The New SMAD".

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exception_e
The Pragmatic Programmer. I'm on mobile, so just Google for it.

This book is amazing and still holds up today, for the most part.

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alltakendamned
For application security I'd say:

Web Application Hackers Handbook 2nd Edition and The Art of Software Security
Assessment

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nkrs
Physical Chemistry by Peter Atkins

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d--b
Quantitative finance: Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives by John Hull

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wikiwatchme
Modern Physics by Paul Tipler and the Feynman lectures by Richard Feynman.

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ice109
ummm no. I can name many Bibles in physics and neither of those are in the
set.

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adyavanapalli
I agree. Feynman lectures aren't in anyway comprehensive or bible-like, but
they're nonetheless very fun. As for Tipler, I'd stay far away from it haha
(take it as an example of how badly a physics textbook can be written).

As for bible-like/comprehensive (I don't know if anyone has written such a
thing in such a vast subject), but many consider the Landau/Lifshitz "Course
in Theoretical Physics" series to be an elegant summary of important results
in physics. Check out the Chicago Undergraduate Physics Bibliography if you're
interested in what books to study to become a physicist.

~~~
leetty
There is a series by Walter Greiner... english translations are also
available.

~~~
ice109
the greiner books are great - especially the qft book

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benji-york
The Sound Reinforcement Handbook — Gary Davis and Ralph Jones

