
Ask HN: What book(s) do you wish existed? - webmaven
For &quot;book&quot; you can substitute any coherent work of prose that is approximately the length of a novel (~50-100k words).<p>No particular restrictions on genre (if fiction) or topic (if non-fiction), audience, format, structure, medium, price, etc.
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pasbesoin
The primer from Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age".

Looking back, if I'd had unfettered access to information along with an
intelligent guide to same, I could have educated myself a lot more quickly and
thoroughly, and avoided the enormous counter-productivity and strife generated
by biased and self-serving external world views and... frankly, sometimes
forceful indoctrination.

Going forward, that's what I'd wish for my kids. Learn how to be around and
get along with other people. But don't waste your time and peace of mind on
the bullshit. And learn to protect your health, and guard it well.

~~~
tjalfi
Carlos Bueno's Lauren Ipsum
([http://www.laurenipsum.org](http://www.laurenipsum.org)) is probably the
next best thing.

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ebcode
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Not the book by Douglas Adams, but the
fictional travel guide in that book.

~~~
webmaven
Heh, I should have expected fictional books to show up. I wouldn't mind a copy
of HHGTTG as well. I'd also like a copy of the Cryptonomicon, from the
eponymous book by Neal Stephenson.

Wikipedia has a long list of fictional books (with several drawn from HHGTTG):
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_books](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_books)

~~~
brudgers
Wikipedia is why I didn't suggest _Encyclopedia Galactica_.

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tedmiston
A variety of career roadmaps for developers.

Also including related opportunities such as technical writing.

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billconan
a step by step book on how to implement bitcoin

a step by step book on how to implement deep learning framework, such as
caffe.

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douche
I'm eagerly awaiting this one, when/if it gets finished and published

[http://fabiensanglard.net/Game_Engine_Black_Book/index.php](http://fabiensanglard.net/Game_Engine_Black_Book/index.php)

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HiroshiSan
Something akin to Paul Graham's essay 'What You'll Wish You'd Known". When I
read it now I can really relate, I remember reading it in my last year of high
school and it gave me a feeling of "wow, I feel like this should affect me but
I don't feel a thing". So maybe a book that could instill the effects of
hindsight without actually having to suffer the consequences.

------
miguelrochefort
A Modern Bible

I feel like society lacks direction and focus. We need a common goal,
something greater than ourselves. Religions provided these things, but most of
them are extremely outdated. I don't expect most people to believe in angels,
fairies and miracles.

\- We need to find the meaning of life.

\- We need people to have a purpose. We need to focus on making the universe
better.

\- We need a book that clearly describes the goal, and provides steps for
humans to progress toward it.

~~~
zimpenfish
> We need to focus on making the universe better.

Shall we focus on the planet, first? It's a bit smaller.

~~~
miguelrochefort
We should always focus on the end goal, which is to make the universe better.

Should we care about Earth? Of course, it's what keeps us alive.

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osullivj
Not books as such, but great lost works: Fermat's proof of his last theorem.
He wrote a letter to a friend that said something like "I have a most elegant
proof, but it's too big to fit in the margin." Also the second half of
Coleridge's Kubla Khan, lost because of the man from Porlock. Douglas Adams
made great play of it in Dirk Gently, IIRC.

~~~
Ritjert
Then look up Wiles' proof of the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture.

The math required is so advanced, and there have been numerous people who
taught they solved it but turned out to be wrong.

It's extremely unlikely that Fermat had solved it.

PS. He wrote that note when he was young (and working on special cases, small
n and such) and probably realized later on that he didn't have a proof for the
general case.

Edit: There was no letter to a friend. It was in the margin of a book he was
reading. More like a little reminder to himself to remember to jot down the
proof.

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tedmiston
One crash course on startup engineering - _Hello, Startup_ (O'Reilly) [1]

This answer is cheating a little bit because the book has existed for about a
year now, but this is exactly what I wanted when I got into startups.

I wish I could hand a copy of this to everyone who asks about becoming a
startup dev.

[1]: [http://www.hello-startup.net/](http://www.hello-startup.net/)

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tjalfi
I wish there was a book on Swift and iOS for experienced programmers that is
about the length of K&R.

~~~
soulchild37
Raywenderlich.com has many good books regarding iOS, check them out

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playing_colours
Orange Catholic Bible from Dune Universe:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Catholic_Bible](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Catholic_Bible)

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jsnk
Foundational and modular approach to learning about HTML, CSS and web API.

\- Foundation: as opposed to tutorial approach and just dropping knowledge
bomb.

\- Modular: as opposed to linear, monolithic book that requires you to read
through 500 pages.

~~~
afarrell
[http://book.mixu.net/css/](http://book.mixu.net/css/) is a free book you may
be interested in.

Note that for the book you're looking for, modularity would require that it
explicitly states the dependencies between sections. This is probably a good
idea anyway.

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sunstone
"Every thing I need know about business I learned from the Catholic Church."

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krapp
All the books I wanted to write when I was younger, but never did.

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timbernard
A great book about "Mental Models" with an affordable price!

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qwrusz
I wish more losers wrote their history books too.

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miguelrochefort
A Guide To Life

~~~
webmaven
What about existing guides doesn't work for you?

~~~
miguelrochefort
They're religious and expect you to believe in fairies.

They also don't justify any of their recommendations.

~~~
bgrohman
Check out The School of Life[1].

"We offer videos, articles, products, events and services concerned with how
to live wisely and well."

Also, philosophy in general sounds like what you're after.

[1] [http://www.theschooloflife.com/](http://www.theschooloflife.com/)

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vgy7ujm
More Perl 5 books.

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madao
Necronomicon?

