The Hacker News Top books of 2023
A ranking of the most-mentioned books on Hacker News in 2023 prompts praise for many enduring technical “classics” and newer titles like *Crafting Interpreters*, while also surfacing skepticism about overhyped staples such as *The Phoenix Project*, *How to Win Friends and Influence People*, and Rudin’s analysis text for casual learners. Commenters probe the methodology behind mining “Ask HN” threads with GPT, noting selection bias and trust issues with LLM-generated data, and suggest alternatives such as broader corpus analysis and better categorization by genre or audience. The thread also branches into recommendations for more approachable math and CS books, sci‑fi standouts like *The Three-Body Problem* and *Blindsight*, and related tools and sites for exploring what different online communities read.
Similar and Related Sites
- Commenters highlight other book-aggregation sites: one that surfaces top books per subreddit and a couple that mine Hacker News book mentions by week/all time.
- People enjoy exploring what different online communities read as a way to understand niche cultures and interests.
Reactions to Specific Books
- Strongly mixed views on certain management/DevOps parable books: some found them useful introductions; others saw them as simplistic, overused “religious texts” in dysfunctional companies.
- A manufacturing/operations novel that inspired one of these books is often preferred by those who read both.
- A programming-language book on interpreters gets widespread praise for clarity, impact on careers, and low barrier to implementing languages; several ask for sequels on compilers or databases.
- A major sci‑fi trilogy is described as “essential” for serious sci‑fi readers, though readers disagree on which volume is best and some find the second book a slog.
- Opinions on a classic interpersonal-skills book are polarized: some see it as invaluable for engineers with weak people skills; others view it as manipulative, insincere, or encouraging doormat behavior.
Math and Technical Books
- Several classic, rigorous math texts (e.g., analysis, Euclidean geometry) are seen as poor fits for casual learners; more approachable undergrad series and friendlier analysis books are recommended instead.
- Some are surprised to see ancient works like Euclid’s used as active learning material rather than just historical documents.
- There’s discussion of reference-style math “companions” as potential staples of a personal library, with disagreement over how necessary they are for non-specialists.
Methodology, GPT, and Bias
- Multiple comments stress that the list reflects books mentioned in “Ask HN” threads explicitly about books, not all HN discussion, creating selection bias.
- Some want a rerun excluding such threads or using LLMs to scan all comments for book titles.
- Use of GPT to identify books triggers skepticism: people worry about hallucinations and lack of traceable reasoning, though others see it as acceptable tooling if datasets and validation are shared.
Site / Meta Issues and General Impressions
- Reports of a certificate error for an image host lead to discussion of certificate trust chains; cause remains somewhat unclear.
- One Amazon link mistakenly pointed to a summary edition; it was later fixed.
- Some note affiliate links but accept them since they’re disclosed.
- Several commenters feel the list is “the same classics” recurring for years, mostly timeless technical and math works; others appreciate that fundamentals still dominate despite tech fads.
- Suggestions include adding newer topical books, offering fiction/nonfiction/genre filters, and noting that many titles are decades old yet still widely used.