Here's a reply[0] to a question that asked about directory structure.
Ignore the programming/technology part.
Military books (such as "One Bullet Away" by Nathaniel Fick or "Generation Kill" by Evan Wright which was turned into a mini-series on HBO). Field manuals can be interesting and you can learn a lot from them.
Knot books.
"Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War" by Robert Gates is interesting.
"The Art of Intelligence", by Henry Crumpton.
"Diplomacy" by Henry Kissinger is an interesting read. It starts with the balance of power in Europe, raison d'état, Richelieu, "U.S. exceptionalism". It is well written.
Since you called out working on a container ship, a lot of these have a nautical bent but that’s an area of my personal interest as well.
Looking for a ship, John McPhee,
Book about a sailor looking for work and eventually catching a ship.
Born A Crime, Trevor Noah, not about another career but Apertheid South Africa, I enjoyed it and wished I would have read it before traveling through S.A. For work.
Don’t Tell mum I work on the rigs, she thinks I’m a piano player in a whorehouse, by Paul Carter, read this one awhile ago but it’s about an oil well driller. The industry has changed quite a bit since this book was written but I remember really enjoying it.
Salvage: a personal odyssey by Ian Tew. I enjoyed this book about a a salvage master out of Singapore
The ride of a lifetime by Robert Iger, book about Iger’s journey to being CEO of Walt Disney Company. A bit of insight to what the company executives are doing/ supposed to be doing?
Quench Your Own Thirst, Jim Koch, the founder of the Boston Beer company. He discusses some of the mistakes he made along the way too.
> "Generation Kill" by Evan Wright which was turned into a mini-series on HBO)
I haven't read the book but I've seen the miniseries many times, it is one of my favorites. It has a TON of great lessons about how large groups of people organize themselves and how the individuals within those groups behave and why that are very pertinent to tech and management in general.
I have read the book simultaneously with Nathaniel Fick's book to get two versions and styles. Funny thing, Fick's story about a picture in a news outlet changes: sometimes it's his girlfriend, and sometimes it's his mom who tells him something along the lines of "Thank god you're not involved in that" about a photograph of Marines going on a mission to Pakistan.
>how the individuals within those groups behave and why that are very pertinent to tech and management in general.
One anecdote is Staff Sergeant Eric Kocher talking about Gunnery Sgt. Ray 'Casey Kasem' Griego being a nightmare when he was helping "Encino Man", but great when his job was training them for the second tour. This is a reminder that a person in different contexts can act differently and have different "performances". Similar to "Wartime Churchill vs. Peacetime PM Churchill"
Ignore the programming/technology part.
Military books (such as "One Bullet Away" by Nathaniel Fick or "Generation Kill" by Evan Wright which was turned into a mini-series on HBO). Field manuals can be interesting and you can learn a lot from them.
Knot books.
"Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War" by Robert Gates is interesting.
"The Art of Intelligence", by Henry Crumpton.
"Diplomacy" by Henry Kissinger is an interesting read. It starts with the balance of power in Europe, raison d'état, Richelieu, "U.S. exceptionalism". It is well written.
- [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17593922