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Ask HN: Foundational Books

by leandot on 10/8/23, 8:23 AM with 10 comments

Hi, I am looking for examples of technical books that are relatively short but well-written and provide a strong foundation for their topics. Such an example for me is Calculus Made Easy by Silvanus. Do you have other examples - e.g. about forecasting, linear algebra, graphics, etc.
  • by coderatlarge on 10/8/23, 2:20 PM

    Friedman & Felleisen - The Little Schemer. The style doesn't work as well for me personally, but it's clearly very short and a popular way into the language and the way of thought.
  • by coderatlarge on 10/8/23, 2:21 PM

    Stroustrup - A Tour of C++. Getting a bit dated, but given how large the language has become over the decades, having a short synopsis can be quite valuable.
  • by coderatlarge on 10/8/23, 2:17 PM

    Rudin - Principles of Mathematical Analysis (aka "baby rudin"). Not as short as the others, but worth the read.
  • by coderatlarge on 10/8/23, 2:12 PM

    Emil Artin - Galois Theory. It has a super brief chapter on linear algebra and determinants that is extremely on-point.
  • by coderatlarge on 10/8/23, 2:23 PM

    Spivak - Calculus on manifolds. Not my personal favorite, but it's short and super classic.
  • by coderatlarge on 10/8/23, 2:22 PM

    Milnor - Topology from the differentiable viewpoint. Super-brief classic.
  • by coderatlarge on 10/8/23, 2:12 PM

    A. I. Khinchin - Mathematical Foundations of Information Theory
  • by coderatlarge on 10/8/23, 2:14 PM

    F. A. Ficken - The Simplex Method of Linear Programming
  • by coderatlarge on 10/8/23, 2:13 PM

    K & R - The C programming language
  • by coderatlarge on 10/8/23, 2:13 PM

    Emil Artin - The Gamma Function