Peter Baumgartner
Data Scientist by day, sleeping by night. MLE @explosion_ai. ex-@RTI_Intl 🐘 @pbaumgartner@fosstodon.org
10+ Book Recommendations by Peter Baumgartner
Effective Python
Brett Slatkin
Updated and Expanded for Python 3 It's easy to start developing programs with Python, which is why the language is so popular. However, Python's unique strengths, charms, and expressiveness can be hard to grasp, and there are hidden pitfalls that can easily trip you up. This second edition of Effective Python will help you master a truly "Pythonic" approach to programming, harnessing Python's full power to write exceptionally robust and well-performing code. Using the concise, scenario-driven style pioneered in Scott Meyers' best-selling Effective C++, Brett Slatkin brings together 90 Python best practices, tips, and shortcuts, and explains them with realistic code examples so that you can embrace Python with confidence. Drawing on years of experience building Python infrastructure at Google, Slatkin uncovers little-known quirks and idioms that powerfully impact code behavior and performance. You'll understand the best way to accomplish key tasks so you can write code that's easier to understand, maintain, and improve. In addition to even more advice, this new edition substantially revises all items from the first edition to reflect how best practices have evolved. Key features include 30 new actionable guidelines for all major areas of Python Detailed explanations and examples of statements, expressions, and built-in types Best practices for writing functions that clarify intention, promote reuse, and avoid bugs Better techniques and idioms for using comprehensions and generator functions Coverage of how to accurately express behaviors with classes and interfaces Guidance on how to avoid pitfalls with metaclasses and dynamic attributes More efficient and clear approaches to concurrency and parallelism Solutions for optimizing and hardening to maximize performance and quality Techniques and built-in modules that aid in debugging and testing Tools and best practices for collaborative development Effective Python will prepare growing programmers to make a big impact using Python.@Homomorphiesatz Aha, the walrus operator is something I haven't picked up yet. It's used a lot in the Effective Python book I mentioned.
Effective Python
Brett Slatkin
Updated and Expanded for Python 3 It's easy to start developing programs with Python, which is why the language is so popular. However, Python's unique strengths, charms, and expressiveness can be hard to grasp, and there are hidden pitfalls that can easily trip you up. This second edition of Effective Python will help you master a truly "Pythonic" approach to programming, harnessing Python's full power to write exceptionally robust and well-performing code. Using the concise, scenario-driven style pioneered in Scott Meyers' best-selling Effective C++, Brett Slatkin brings together 90 Python best practices, tips, and shortcuts, and explains them with realistic code examples so that you can embrace Python with confidence. Drawing on years of experience building Python infrastructure at Google, Slatkin uncovers little-known quirks and idioms that powerfully impact code behavior and performance. You'll understand the best way to accomplish key tasks so you can write code that's easier to understand, maintain, and improve. In addition to even more advice, this new edition substantially revises all items from the first edition to reflect how best practices have evolved. Key features include 30 new actionable guidelines for all major areas of Python Detailed explanations and examples of statements, expressions, and built-in types Best practices for writing functions that clarify intention, promote reuse, and avoid bugs Better techniques and idioms for using comprehensions and generator functions Coverage of how to accurately express behaviors with classes and interfaces Guidance on how to avoid pitfalls with metaclasses and dynamic attributes More efficient and clear approaches to concurrency and parallelism Solutions for optimizing and hardening to maximize performance and quality Techniques and built-in modules that aid in debugging and testing Tools and best practices for collaborative development Effective Python will prepare growing programmers to make a big impact using Python.@sandakano If you want comprehensive, Effective Python by Brett Slatkin is great. https://t.co/ADCFHzsrZL If you want quick: f-strings: https://t.co/jPkxAw9cRb black: https://t.co/mBuv6Aw7bG dataclasses: https://t.co/vcmYA9sPoX typing: https://t.co/QRztIkzyam
Sapiens
Yuval Noah Harari
**THE MILLION COPY BESTSELLER** 'Interesting and provocative... It gives you a sense of how briefly we've been on this Earth' Barack Obama What makes us brilliant? What makes us deadly? What makes us Sapiens? Yuval Noah Harari challenges everything we know about being human in the perfect read for these unprecedented times. Earth is 4.5 billion years old. In just a fraction of that time, one species among countless others has conquered it: us. In this bold and provocative book, Yuval Noah Harari explores who we are, how we got here and where we're going. 'I would recommend Sapiens to anyone who's interested in the history and future of our species' Bill Gates **ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY**@vboykis Did you ever read Sapiens? The way Harrari framed "dataism" as the next kind of zeitgeist/era makes me think we should see an increase in this type of thinking: a kind of agnosticism/atheism/skepticism towards dataism. Or, not to get too meta, more context for when dataism helps.
- Covering such topics as initiating, planning, executing, monitoring/controlling and closing, FranklinCovey management experts offer practical, real-world advice for effective project management. Original. 30,000 first printing.
@seanjtaylor I found "Project Management for The Unofficial Project Manager" to be pragmatic with some helpful tools. https://t.co/EYCLAQZbJM
The Formula
Albert-László Barabási
In this pioneering examination of the scientific principles behind success, a leading researcher reveals the surprising ways in which we can turn achievement into success. Too often, accomplishment does not equate to success. We did the work but didn't get the promotion; we played hard but weren't recognized; we had the idea but didn't get the credit. We've always been told that talent and a strong work ethic are the key to getting ahead, but in today's world these efforts rarely translate into tangible results. Recognizing this disconnect, László Barabási, one of the world's leading experts on the science of networks, uncovers what success really is: a collective phenomenon based on the thoughts and praise of those around you. In The Formula, Barabási highlights the vital importance of community respect and appreciation when connecting performance to recognition - the elusive link between performance and success. By leveraging the power of big data and historic case studies, Barabási reveals the unspoken rules behind who truly gets ahead and why, and outlines the twelve laws that govern this phenomenon and how we can use them to our own advantage. Unveiling the scientific principles that drive success, this trailblazing book offers a new understanding of the very foundation of how people excel in today's society.@vboykis Did you ever read "The Formula" by Barabasi? I feel like it did a good job illustrating why sales, persuasion, networking, communication are all necessary for success. Good summary: https://t.co/rDMFxPqV6U
Pre-Suasion
Robert Cialdini
The acclaimed New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller from Robert Cialdini—“the foremost expert on effective persuasion” (Harvard Business Review)—explains how it’s not necessarily the message itself that changes minds, but the key moment before you deliver that message. What separates effective communicators from truly successful persuaders? With the same rigorous scientific research and accessibility that made his Influence an iconic bestseller, Robert Cialdini explains how to prepare people to be receptive to a message before they experience it. Optimal persuasion is achieved only through optimal pre-suasion. In other words, to change “minds” a pre-suader must also change “states of mind.” Named a “Best Business Books of 2016” by the Financial Times, and “compelling” by The Wall Street Journal, Cialdini’s Pre-Suasion draws on his extensive experience as the most cited social psychologist of our time and explains the techniques a person should implement to become a master persuader. Altering a listener’s attitudes, beliefs, or experiences isn’t necessary, says Cialdini—all that’s required is for a communicator to redirect the audience’s focus of attention before a relevant action. From studies on advertising imagery to treating opiate addiction, from the annual letters of Berkshire Hathaway to the annals of history, Cialdini outlines the specific techniques you can use on online marketing campaigns and even effective wartime propaganda. He illustrates how the artful diversion of attention leads to successful pre-suasion and gets your targeted audience primed and ready to say, “Yes.” His book is “an essential tool for anyone serious about science based business strategies…and is destined to be an instant classic. It belongs on the shelf of anyone in business, from the CEO to the newest salesperson” (Forbes).One thing I'm trying is writing "If-When-Then" statements, an idea I read about in Cialdini's Pre-Suasion. I have one for "If I anticipate dread before opening an email, then open it ASAP and don't over-analyze it." https://t.co/85gNeNFEPZ
In the First Circle
Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
The thrilling cold war masterwork by the Nobel Prize winner, published in full for the first time Moscow, Christmas Eve, 1949.The Soviet secret police intercept a call made to the American embassy by a Russian diplomat who promises to deliver secrets about the nascent Soviet Atomic Bomb program. On that same day, a brilliant mathematician is locked away inside a Moscow prison that houses the country's brightest minds. He and his fellow prisoners are charged with using their abilities to sleuth out the caller's identity, and they must choose whether to aid Joseph Stalin's repressive state—or refuse and accept transfer to the Siberian Gulag camps . . . and almost certain death. First written between 1955 and 1958, In the First Circle is Solzhenitsyn's fiction masterpiece. In order to pass through Soviet censors, many essential scenes—including nine full chapters—were cut or altered before it was published in a hastily translated English edition in 1968. Now with the help of the author's most trusted translator, Harry T. Willetts, here for the first time is the complete, definitive English edition of Solzhenitsyn's powerful and magnificent classic.@dsimposters Hard to pick. Today I'm going to say This is Marketing, Amusing Ourselves to Death, and In the First Circle.
Amusing Ourselves to Death
Neil Postman
Examines the ways in which television has transformed public discourse--in politics, education, religion, science, and elsewhere--into a form of entertainment that undermines exposition, explanation and knowledge, in a special anniversary edition of the classic critique of the influence of the mass media on a democratic society. Reprint.@dsimposters Hard to pick. Today I'm going to say This is Marketing, Amusing Ourselves to Death, and In the First Circle.
This Is Marketing
Seth Godin
A game-changing approach to marketing, sales, and advertising, by bestselling author and renowned business thinker Seth Godin Over the past quarter century, Seth Godin has taught and inspired millions of entrepreneurs, marketers, leaders, and fans from all walks of life, via his blog, online courses, lectures, and bestselling books. He is the inventor of countless ideas and phrases that have made their way into mainstream business language, from Permission Marketing to Purple Cow to Tribes to The Dip. Now, for the first time, Godin offers the core of his marketing wisdom in one compact, accessible, and timeless package. This is Marketing shows you how to do work you're proud of, whether you're a tech startup founder, a small business owner, or an executive at a large corporation. Great marketers don't use consumers to solve their company's problem; they use marketing to solve other people's problems. Their tactics rely on empathy, connection, and emotional labor instead of attention-stealing ads and spammy email funnels. When done right, marketing seeks to make change in the world. No matter what your product or service, this book will teach you how to reframe how it's presented to the world, in order to meaningfully connect with the people who want it. Seth employs his signature blend of insight, observation, and memorable examples to teach you: * How to build trust and permission with your target market. * The art of positioning--deciding not only who it's for, but who it's not for. * Why the best way to achieve your marketing goals is to help others become who they want to be. * Why the old approaches to advertising and branding no longer work. * The surprising role of tension in any decision to buy (or not). * How marketing is at its core about the stories we tell ourselves about our social status. You can do work that matters for people who care. This book shows you the way.@dsimposters Hard to pick. Today I'm going to say This is Marketing, Amusing Ourselves to Death, and In the First Circle.
Bad Blood
John Carreyrou
@vboykis My wife just finished Bad Blood, going to have to put that on my list too.
Amusing Ourselves to Death
Neil Postman
Examines the ways in which television has transformed public discourse--in politics, education, religion, science, and elsewhere--into a form of entertainment that undermines exposition, explanation and knowledge, in a special anniversary edition of the classic critique of the influence of the mass media on a democratic society. Reprint.@vboykis Amusing Ourselves to Death (Neil Postman, 1985) and This is Marketing (Seth Godin, 2018) were the two books that impacted me the most in 2018.
This Is Marketing
Seth Godin
A game-changing approach to marketing, sales, and advertising, by bestselling author and renowned business thinker Seth Godin Over the past quarter century, Seth Godin has taught and inspired millions of entrepreneurs, marketers, leaders, and fans from all walks of life, via his blog, online courses, lectures, and bestselling books. He is the inventor of countless ideas and phrases that have made their way into mainstream business language, from Permission Marketing to Purple Cow to Tribes to The Dip. Now, for the first time, Godin offers the core of his marketing wisdom in one compact, accessible, and timeless package. This is Marketing shows you how to do work you're proud of, whether you're a tech startup founder, a small business owner, or an executive at a large corporation. Great marketers don't use consumers to solve their company's problem; they use marketing to solve other people's problems. Their tactics rely on empathy, connection, and emotional labor instead of attention-stealing ads and spammy email funnels. When done right, marketing seeks to make change in the world. No matter what your product or service, this book will teach you how to reframe how it's presented to the world, in order to meaningfully connect with the people who want it. Seth employs his signature blend of insight, observation, and memorable examples to teach you: * How to build trust and permission with your target market. * The art of positioning--deciding not only who it's for, but who it's not for. * Why the best way to achieve your marketing goals is to help others become who they want to be. * Why the old approaches to advertising and branding no longer work. * The surprising role of tension in any decision to buy (or not). * How marketing is at its core about the stories we tell ourselves about our social status. You can do work that matters for people who care. This book shows you the way.@vboykis Amusing Ourselves to Death (Neil Postman, 1985) and This is Marketing (Seth Godin, 2018) were the two books that impacted me the most in 2018.
The Elephant in the Brain
Kevin Simler
"This book exposes our unconscious selfish motives, those we're reluctant to discuss or even think about. These motives drive our body language, laughter, and conversation, as well as venerated institutions like art, school, charity, medicine, politics, and religion"--Reading Elephant in the Brain but really it's reading me https://t.co/R1wlTQc9pc