Best architecture and design books according to redditors

We found 3,226 Reddit comments discussing the best architecture and design books. We ranked the 1,481 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

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Subcategories:

Architecture criticism books
Individual architects & firms books
Regional architecture books
Landscape architecture books
Architectural planning books
Architectural presentation books
Building architecture books
Urban & land use planning books
Historic architecture preservation books
Architecture history books
Architecture decoration & ornament books
Interior design books
Sustainability & green design books
Security design books
Vernacular architecture books

Top Reddit comments about Architecture:

u/mantrap2 · 79 pointsr/philosophy

Actually there is something to this. Read Jane Jacobs' Death of Great American Cities or simple visit cities in any other part of the world.

Her theses is because we try to eliminate foot traffic and loitering and "street life" in our cities, we've effectively remove the one thing that prevents crime: having lots of neighbors on the street "just living" who act as a deterrent. It's empty streets that make crime easy because there's no one to witness or challenge the crime.

This is also related to the tendencies toward Car Culture, suburbs and Brutalist architecture in the US which look good on paper in the abstract but simply "doesn't work" for people in the city. All of these things do exactly the same thing to eliminate pedestrian traffic that eliminates the prevention of crime.

So in this sense, everyone becomes a cop without even knowing it just by being part of a community and neighborhood.

This is why it's important for American cites to move away from this traditional designs of emphasizing cars, brutalist architecture, un-walkable streets, separated zoning (vs. mixed use), lack of mass transit, etc.

u/ILikeSmug · 58 pointsr/interestingasfuck

That's fantastic. There's a design pattern* associated with balconies, and the vast majority of apartment complexes make them so small they are useless, and in some cases they make the space even less accessible. It looks like they got the proportions right, but i wonder if it feels crowded.

I don't remember the page # but here's the book:
https://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Language-Buildings-Construction-Environmental/dp/0195019199

u/soapdealer · 55 pointsr/SimCity

I totally love the Christopher Alexander books. Definitely check out his The Timeless Way of Building which is a great companion piece to A Pattern Language. You should know that his works, while great in my opinion, are sort of considered idiosyncratic and not really in the mainstream of architecture/urban design.

Here's a short reading list you should look at:

The Smart Growth Manual and Suburban Nation by Andres Duany & Jeff Speck. Another set of sort-of-companion works, the Manual has a concrete set of recommendations inspired by the critique of modern town planning in Suburban Nation and might be more useful for your purposes.

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs is probably the most famous and influential book on city planning ever and contains a lot of really original and thoughtful insights on cities. Despite being over half-a-century old it feels very contemporary and relevant.

The Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler is similarly mostly a critique of modernist planning principles but is both short and very well written so I'd definitely recommend checking it out.

Makeshift Metropolis by Witold Rybczynski: I can't recommend this entire book, but it does contain (in my opinion) the best summary of the history of American urban planning. Really useful for a historical perspective on different schools of thought in city design over the years.

The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup is the book on parking policy. It's huge (700+ pages) and very thorough and academic, so it might be harder to get through than the other, more popular-audience-oriented titles on the list, but if you want to include parking as a gameplay element, I really can't recommend it highly enough. It's a problem that's thorny enough most city games just ignore it entirely: Simcity2013's developers say they abandoned it after realizing it would mean most of their players' cities would be covered in parking lots, ignoring that most actual American cities are indeed covered in parking lots.

Finally there's a bunch of great blogs/websites out there you should check out: Streetsblog is definitely a giant in transportation/design blogging and has a really capable team of journalists and a staggering amount of content. Chuck Marohn's Strong Towns blog and Podcast are a great source for thinking about these issues more in terms of smaller towns and municipalities (in contrast to Streetsblog's focus on major metropolitan areas). The Sightline Daily's blog does amazing planning/transpo coverage of the Pacific Northwest. Finally [The Atlantic Cities] (http://www.theatlanticcities.com/) blog has incredible coverage on city-issues around the world.

I hope this was helpful and not overwhelming. It's a pretty big (and in my opinion, interesting) topic, so there's a lot of ground to cover even in an introductory sense.

u/nallabor · 52 pointsr/Economics

> it seems there's a lot of hand-wringing over figuring out how to pack more people into cities instead of making non-city living more viable

Developing outward creates sprawling, low-density cities with very low qualities of life for the residents. Walkable City by Jeff Speck is a great primer

u/Austin98989 · 38 pointsr/Economics

It's amazing how few people grasp the high cost of "free" parking.

u/JanetYellensFuckboy · 32 pointsr/neoliberal

I'd highly recommend the High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup (RIP) on this subject. Great, pioneering book about how we fail to deal with the huge externalities of personal automobiles.

u/anomoly · 29 pointsr/todayilearned

Bill Bryson's book At Home: A Short History of Private Life is another good read that covers these relationships, along with an incredibly interesting history of other aspects of day-to-day life. I very much recommended it.

u/elbac14 · 28 pointsr/toronto

Unpopular opinion here but Earth Hour is not only misleading, it actually gives people a false concept of sustainability.

This American urban planner pulled some of the latest research and found that someone who lives in a super "green" suburban house and drives to it in a hybrid car still produces more carbon emissions than someone who lives in an old house downtown but doesn't drive as much because they can walk or use transit.

Our built environment (i.e. whether you have to drive for every daily task or not) is a real driver of sustainability, not light bulbs or appliances. Plus light bulbs are improving anyways as LED bulbs are becoming more popular and they use very little energy so turning them off for hour almost accomplishes nothing.

Earth Hour essentially tells people it is okay if you live in a McMansion in the deepest of suburban sprawl and burn fuel to drive to pick up even a carton of orange juice - as long as you just turn off a few bulbs once a year. It makes people feel good and ignore the true causes of their carbon footprint. This isn't a call to live like a hippie. It's a call for better urban planning with less sprawl, more transit, and more walkable, mixed-use neighbourhoods.

u/b_r_e_a_k_f_a_s_t · 26 pointsr/Minneapolis

BENDER 63.4% 1st CHOICE


It was kind of worrying to see all of the Saralyn Romanishan signs in front of mansions in the Wedge. I'm glad the bulk of the ward stayed sane, and I hope Bender now realizes that the NIMBY vote is a lost cause, even if you court them by downzoning the neighborhood interior.

Congrats to /u/CMAndrewJohnson for winning 87% of the first choice votes in his ward.

Edit: Looks like the socialist might win in ward 3. Someone please send her a copy of Walkable City by Jeff Speck (or at least his TED talk).

u/sometimesineedhelp · 25 pointsr/pics

I upvoted you, but I want to add that I also used to make jokes to disassociate from the reality of what I was contributing to by eating meat, so one day several years ago I just stopped. It was a lot easier than I anticipated and the physical and emotional rewards of that decision have been pretty profound so I just wanted to encourage everyone who was disturbed by this picture (in the least preachy way I possibly can) to read the book "Eating Animals" and give this issue just a little more thought.

u/Rudiger · 24 pointsr/vancouver

Why do you think parking should be made free (and giving a subsidy to users of those spots) outside the downtown core after 8pm, on Sundays and statutory holidays when nearly all experts agree that parking is grossly under priced?

How will you make up for the lost income and this subsidy for drivers?

Sources:

The High Cost of Free Parking

Freakonomics

New York Times

u/player2 · 24 pointsr/SeattleWA

Luckily, other people have thought very hard and determined that mandatory off-street parking raises the cost of living overall.

u/MimthePetty · 22 pointsr/Austin

You are undoubtedly and unpopularly correct.

https://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X

u/whiskeytangohoptrot · 21 pointsr/SeattleWA

> You wanna just let the city start charging us to park on streets we already paid for?

The High Cost of Free Parking goes into this. If you want the reader's digest version, here's an episode of Planet Money that goes into it.

u/Captain_Unremarkable · 21 pointsr/ShitAmericansSay

>Ok, what's unique about US problem?

Oh my god, I'm sure a plethora of master's theses have been written on this subject. This book comes to mind, for starters:

http://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Parking-Updated-Edition/dp/193236496X

(Note that it is written by a UCLA professor--yes, Los Angeles, the city with arguably the worst traffic problem in the world.)

Also note I am not saying that the USA is a special snowflake; that's SAS fodder and I know it. But yes, we are unique in the literal sense of the word.

Now we're beginning to scratch the surface. Or at least, that's what I believe.

^But ^I'm ^really ^upset ^and ^overwhelmed ^with ^my ^fucking ^university's ^course ^scheduling ^process ^in ^this ^moment: ^disclaimer.

u/narcoticfx · 20 pointsr/architecture

Ching's 'Architecture: Form, Space, and Order' will surely help you. It is simple, quite visual and straightfoward. See if you can get hold of a PDF and let me know if it helped.

u/rhombusrhombus · 20 pointsr/todayilearned

Bill Bryson's At Home: A Short History of Private Life covers this in great depth. Highly recommended reading.

u/cirrus42 · 18 pointsr/urbanplanning

In this exact order:

  1. Start with Suburban Nation by Duany, Zyberk, and Speck. It's super easy to read, totally skimmable, and has a lot of great graphics and diagrams that help explain things. It's not the deepest book out there, but it's the best place to start.

  2. After that, try Geography of Nowhere by Kunstler. The author can be cranky and there are no diagrams, but he does a nice job of explaining how suburbia happened, why it made sense at the time, and why it's not so great anymore. Basically it's a primer on the key issue facing city planning today.

  3. After them, you'll be ready for The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jacobs. This is the bible of urbanism, the most important and influential book written about the form of cities since the invention of the car. But it's not as accessible as the first two, so I wouldn't start here.

  4. Walkable City by Speck. This is the newest of the bunch, and provides the data to back up the claims from the previous 3.

  5. Image of the City by Lynch. This one is a series of case studies that will teach you how to "read" how a city functions based on its form. The examples are all woefully obsolete, which is too bad, but still teaches you an important skill.
u/Midnight_in_Seattle · 16 pointsr/SeattleWA

The question is not "for" or "against" cars, per se; it's about the high cost of "free" parking, which all of us pay, including people who have cars.

Do we want space for humans or for machines? That's a real salient trade-off in many cities, and it's one that's rarely foregrounded in discussions about the obscene cost of rent.

u/davepsilon · 15 pointsr/boston

A lot of great thinking on urban parking including the cost it adds to development and the ramifications for livable cities was collected in the book [The High Cost of Free Parking](https://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X). It is a thick tome, but it was suggested to me on reddit and reading it completely changed my view on parking regulations.

​

And shared use parking is a theme of some of the chapters. I think it's usually discussed in shared parking for multiple businesses that have different hours rather than apartments and businesses just because the businesses and residences are frequently in different areas.

u/_9a_ · 15 pointsr/thesims

That wasn't uninspired, you just took inspiration from old European manor homes! Hallways are for servants!

Seriously though, they were. The concept of connecting hallways was so servants could move unseen through the house and just appear where they were needed. No need for the nobs to see the peons. If you're interested, I highly suggest At Home, by Bill Bryson, a room-by-room historical perspective over the evolution of a western home.

u/evanstravers · 14 pointsr/Portland

There’s an important book dealing with this we read in Principles of Urban Design: The High Cost of Free Parking

u/unclebumblebutt · 14 pointsr/VictoriaBC

Driving around looking for parking represents ~1/3rd of all vehicle miles travelled.

More: https://fee.org/articles/parking-regulations-cause-traffic-congestion-but-the-market-can-help/If you really want to go down the rabbit hole: https://www.amazon.ca/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X


Edit: more on the 1/3rd VMT that says it may be much lower http://docs.trb.org/prp/17-04407.pdf

u/enosprologue · 14 pointsr/architecture

It gets mentioned a lot, but 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School is a great book if you can get your hands on it. Also, for beginners the Francis Ching books are great, especially Architecture: Form Space and Order, and Simon Unwin's Analyzing Architecture.

Another tip is, sadly, take this subreddit with a grain of salt. Many here seem to want to emulate professors who gave them a harsh beat down in critiques, and architecture generally has a very negative culture. You are not in architecture school, you don't need to be judged to the same standard. Especially if you are doing this as a hobby. Keep finding out what you like and be open to learning more.

u/Agricola86 · 14 pointsr/vegan

That's an awesome decision to look into going vegan! It's so much easier than you'd think once you start. This veganuary website is loaded with tips and info to get folks started. Plus the FAQ on the side bar might answer some basic questions.

If you're up for more motivation Earthlings is a very powerful movie which will likely cement your resolve to step out of an unnecessary system. Also Forks over Knives and Vegucated are on netflix which are much less graphic and provide lots of info.

I also like to recommend books to help people learn more about the ethics of animal consumption. Eating Animals is a great read from an investigative angle from a renowned novelist and Eat Like You Care is a short and very powerful case for the ethical necessity of not consuming animals.

Regarding your health, so long as you eat a varied diet and occasionally add a B12 supplement you health will not suffer and very possibly improve!

You're making an awesome decision and you will be amazed at how easy it gets after just a few weeks!

u/benhurensohn · 13 pointsr/LosAngeles

The High Cost of Free Parking, Updated Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/193236496X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_TRPNBb707AMQM

u/ArcadeNineFire · 12 pointsr/urbanplanning

This sub can seem overwhelmingly anti-car because, for many, it's a place to vent.

Look at it this way: the dominant public policy in the United States for several generations, stretching back 70+ years, has been to orient nearly every transportation, land use, and development decision around the automobile.

That has resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars (probably trillions, actually) of direct and indirect subsidies promoting car ownership, free and/or cheap car storage (parking), car-oriented residential development (suburban sprawl), and on and on. This in comparison to paltry support for public transportation, dense urban development, etc. Put succinctly, cars and cities are a bad match.

Don't get me wrong: the personal automobile is amazing technology. It makes sense that people have gravitated to it. But the planners of 1940s and 50s – whose system we largely emulate today – simply couldn't (or wouldn't) predict the massive negative side effects that accompany car-oriented development.

These planners thought that cars and suburbs would mean an end to urban gridlock. Instead, they accelerate it. They thought that building highways through urban cores would revitalize them – instead, those highways decimated communities, many of which have never recovered.

In fact, the original Interstate Highways System was supposed to connect cities (great idea!), not go through them (not so great).

For those of us on this sub who follow these trends, and have found that modern research is firmly against much of the so-called benefits of cars, parking lots, and highways, it's immensely frustrating that so much of the public conversation adamantly refuses to recognize the shortcomings of car-oriented development. So yes, you get a lot of "anti-car" sentiment around here, but I think it's more fair to say that we're pro-balance, not anti-car per se.

Cars will continue to make sense for the vast majority of people for the vast majority of trips. What we want to see are more options so that you don't have to drive everywhere, all the time, which is bad for our environmental and physical health, and is economically unsustainable to boot.

As for parking lots specifically, you won't find a better resource than Donald Shoup's The High Cost of Free Parking, which is basically the Bible around here (for good reason). I imagine you don't feel like reading a whole book about parking policy (and I wouldn't blame you!), but google the phrase and you'll find plenty of articles about it that get across the main points.

I'd also encourage you to check out the Strong Towns organization, which was started by a (conservative) former traffic engineer in suburban Minnesota (i.e. not your typical member of this sub). They come at these points from a very practical, non-ideological perspective. Here's a good post to start with.

u/_THE_MAD_TITAN · 12 pointsr/politics

Basic macroeconomics tells us that lower interest rates supposedly results in more spending, borrowing, and thus more economic activity and growth.

But there are some glaring holes in the mainstream economic understanding:

(1) After a transition period of a few months, the economy settles into a equilibrium that isn't much better than before the rate change. If the federal funds interbank rate is adjusted downward by only 0.25 percentage points (known as "basis points"), then there's no reason to think such a tiny adjustment will result in a meaningful boost to the economy.

(2) In fact, with baseline interest rates so low, we are in danger of entering a "liquidity trap" in which people don't even bother saving their money or investing it because the rate of return on investments and savings will be so low, the benefit of investing versus spending it today would be much weaker. Less money will be saved for financial emergencies, retirement, college savings, etc now that the benefit of doing so is reduced.

(3) Also, any boost to growth that results from reducing interest rates can only be sustained by continuing to reduce the interest rates over a prolonged period. A one-off decrease by such a small increment simply will not ripple through the economy in a way that people will appreciate.

(4) There is also the reality that simply making debt and other capital cheaper by lowering rates is not going to translate into new innovations, factories, warehouses, product lines or other new products and investments.

If new growth is the goal, we need to stop tinkering with monetary policy and commit to more Keynesian or Georgist macroeconomic fiscal policy:

  • Improve our land use policy.

  • Reduce barriers to entry for upstart minority entrepreneurs.

  • Make college and grad school significantly cheaper or tuition-free.

  • Reform the healthcare and health insurance sector so that employees are not tethered to their current employer due to health insurance.

  • Toughen up our antitrust laws to not have such a narrow definition of "monopoly". Prohibit all exclusive partnerships and other contracts, unless parties to the agreement wish to pay an exclusivity tax.

  • Implement a land value tax, and make federal block grants dependent on states' adoption of land value tax and reduction of income and sales taxes.

  • Implement a carbon tax

  • Implement congestion pricing for major roads and interstates. Incentivize states and cities to abolish free parking and to implement surge pricing and remove the minimum on-site parking requirements in their zoning ordinances.
u/MrSamsonite · 11 pointsr/AskAcademia

Neat question. The two obvious big names from Urban Planning are Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs. They epitomize Modernist planning and Post-Modern planning, respectively.

Robert Moses was one of the most important non-elected officials in the 20th Century, with the most popular account being Robert Caro's massive biography, The Power Broker. He was a fantastically smart legal wiz who came to power in the 1920s in New York and was the standard-bearer for sweeping top-down government approaches to development. He used his knowledge and authority to gain more and more power, creating some of the first modern highways in bridges all over New York City and state that helped influence the Interstate Highway Act and the urban car-centric model.

He can be viewed as quite a villain these days (think the unbridled power of Mr. Burns on the Simpsons), especially as academic planners now generally recognize the huge negative impacts that Modernist American planning had. There was massive economic and social displacement where things like the Cross Bronx Expressway ripped working-class immigrant neighborhoods in half, allowing commerce to escape urban centers and help create mid-century ghettoization. In short, the modernist approach can be seen as paternalistic at best and willfully concentrating power at the expense of the masses at worst. That said, depression-Era New York had huge problems (dilapidated housing and political corruption, to name two) that Moses' public works projects helped alleviate, and he was one of the country's most powerful advocates for public parks even in the face of massive growth and sprawl.

Moses sat on countless commissions and authorities for decades, his power only finally waning in the 1960s as the top-down modernist approach of (Post) World War II America faced its loudest criticisms with the related Civil Rights, Hippie, Environmentalist, Anti-Vietnam movements: Americans were finally scrutinizing the "Build Build Build Cars Cars Cars Roads Roads Roads" model that had driven cities for decades, which brings us to Jane Jacobs.

Jacobs (who got herself a Google Doodle last week for her 100th birthday), was a Greenwich Village liberal and fierce critic of the Moses-type technocratic planning. She was a community organizer who helped stop Moses as he tried to push through plans for highways in Midtown and Lower Manhattan. For those unfamiliar, these are two of the economic and social cores of New York City - she argued that roads are supposed to serve us, not destroy our important urban spaces.

If you ask a city planner what sole city planning book to read (myself included), the overwhelming favorite will be Jacobs' 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, the most important critique of modernist planning to date. Instead of sprawling highways and engineering projects, Jacobs saw the healthiest urban spaces as walkable, intimate, friendly and inviting and on a human-scale. She advocated for small city blocks, much wider sidewalks and mixed-use spaces instead of the classic Sim City "Residential/Commercial/Industrial" segregated zoning.

While there has since been plenty of critique of Jacobs' post-modern model, today's planning leans much closer to Jacobs' vision (at least in academic settings): Planners are more focused than ever on the post-modern walkability, mixed-use, high-density, equal-access, participatory planning model. Although this seems like a healthier place for planning than the Moses model of old, the academic ideals clash with the huge legacy of the Modernist planning approach (We can't just up and rebuild cities every time a theory changes, after all), along with the neoliberal financialization and privatization of so many of our spaces over the last few decades, so it's still as muddy as ever.

Anyway, that's a slight oversimplification of some of the history, but Moses and Jacobs were certainly the biggest avatars of the Modernist and Post-Modernist planning movements and have been as influential in the field of planning as anybody.

u/ThrozenFrone · 11 pointsr/trebuchetmemes

It's called: "Structures, or why things don't fall down" by J E Gordon

It's pretty good. Definitely worth checking out if you're into this kind of thing.

u/usedOnlyInModeration · 10 pointsr/AskFeminists

Peter Singer is amazing. I remember having a 2-week breakdown and existential crisis when I read Animal Liberation. I just didn't know how to handle and accept the mind-blowingly immense suffering happening every second; I couldn't figure out how to go about my life with that fact existing. How could I simply turn my back on that fact, and not fight it every second? How could I possibly forget those animals and go about my life as if it weren't true?

Ultimately I had to make the conscious choice to forget. I could only do what I could do - become vegan, evangelize, be an advocate, protest, boycott, take part in everyday activism. But beyond that, what can I do for the billions of animals suffering unimaginable horrors every second?

There are facts and images seared into my brain that I cannot and never will forget - pigs snouts being sliced off and salt rubbed in the wound, cats being boiled alive in cages, raccoon dogs skinned alive and thrown in a pile of agony, animals caught in unbearable suffering in steel traps, others anally/vaginally/orally electrocuted to death for their furs, pigs boiled alive, chickens trampled and pecked to death in too-small to move cages, cows beaten and prodded to walk on broken legs, the heartbroken wail of a pig or cow whose baby is stolen away, male chicks ground up alive... I have SEEN these things. And it is unbearable.

I think these things should be shown to everybody. How anybody could bite into the flesh of a chicken after that is beyond me.

Edit: for those who may be interested in learning more:

u/NotALandscaper · 10 pointsr/LandscapeArchitecture

Great question, and great idea! Off the top of my head:


The Basics

Landscape Architect's Portable Handbook - This one does get a bit technical, but it's a good guide.


Sociology/Psychology

Social Life of Small Urban Spaces - Just a good book about how people experience spaces

Design with People in Mind - An older film, but a classic. Funny and with great observations about how people use spaces and interact with their environment


Design Theory

Architecture: Form, Space and Order - This is a great guidebook for architects and landscape architects alike


History of Landscape Architecture

Illustrated History of Landscape Design - A great intro to the history of landscape architecture.


Urban Planning/Design

Death and Life of Great American Cities - It's a classic and should be a required read for anyone in landscape architecture or architecture


This is the short list - I'll add to it as I think of more!

u/jsvh · 10 pointsr/Atlanta

Much needed. If anyone wants to read way too much on this topic I recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X

u/nuotnik · 10 pointsr/urbanplanning

Here's the podcast, Parking Is Hell

They interview Donald Shoup, who is basically the expert on parking policy, and the author of The High Cost of Free Parking.

u/nolandus · 10 pointsr/urbanplanning

The simple answer is that no, it's absolutely not too late. My suggestions, having recently been in your position:
-
(1) Graduate and work for a year or two, preferably (for income purposes) in the field you majored in. Going straight from undergrad to graduate school is usually mistake, especially if you have undergraduate debt. Live frugally and pay that off. Who knows, you may end up loving the field you originally chose. You can also take a shot at an entry-level urban planning job/internship if you already have the preferred skills/connections.

(2a) During this time, read as much as you can on urban planning and urban economics. Start with classics like "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" and "Triumph of the City". You can find dozens of great threads in this subreddit listing out the "essential" texts. Blogs are a great way to stay on the up and up on current issues in urban planning. A few that I like are Sidewalk Talk, Market Urbanism, and Old Urbanist. Planetizen is also a great aggregator for urban planning news and discussion.

(2b) During this time work on developing the quantitative skills that would set you apart. These include programming languages/tools for data analysis (R, Python), digital mapping (ArcGIS is preferred, but you can use QGIS for free), and math if you haven't already taken any. You can find plenty of free online courses in these areas. Having these skills will set you apart in a big way.

(3) By this point, you should have a general idea of what in particular you would like to study/research/work in within urban planning and a basic groundwork of relevant skills. This will set you apart among the applicant pool. I also had no academic/professional experience when applying, but I made it clear through my application that I was passionate, well-read, and had developed the necessary skills. It will also allow you to pick degrees (Master of City and Regional Planning? Master of Public Administration? Master of Public Policy?) and programs tailored to your specific interests. The application process can take anywhere from a year to six months, if you start studying early for the GRE. If you do end up taking a shot at graduate school, I found this guide to be very helpful.

Hope this helps.

Edit: I have no idea why this isn't formatting correctly

u/rawboudin · 10 pointsr/IWantToLearn

When I bought our first home, I didn't know shit. Like at all. Didn't have any tools, didn't have any interest in them, etc. But the cost of hiring is often so expensive that you quickly learn and I started enjoying it when I realized that manual things around the house can easily be seen as an intellectual challenge. "How am I going to do this?". That helps because some people see manual labor as dumb stuff but it isn't.

I have this book from Reader's digest. I find that it is useful because browsing through it, I see a lot of stuff that I could do that I did not know about. Afterwards, I look on youtube and on forums to get a better opinion. The book is mainly to get ideas. I love it.

Know your limits... some things are scary at first (plumbing, electricity), and may remain scary. I don't touch electricity. I don't like it and I'd rather not burn the house down by making a mistake. An electrician is expensive, but so be it.

Depending on your relationship with your folks/friends, you might ask someone to show you how to do something. But you have to do it yourself to learn. People are often happy to show they can do something. For me though, I prefer to go at it alone, which leads me to the next point...

Take your time when doing anything. Do it at your own rhythm. I like to do it by myself because i take the time to think about it.

As far as starting, have you tried to patch holes in drywall (if you have any I guess lol). Or changing a rotten wood plank on your deck.

And finally, a little piece of advice, try to start your new and first-time project early during business hours. Ie, don't start changing a faucet at 5PM if the home depot closes at 6PM. You never know what you might need in a hurry (hint : I had no water for an evening).

Hope this helps.

u/empenneur · 9 pointsr/LosAngeles

Sure. I'm an architect and when we get inquiries or RFPs the first thing we do is look at parking. I've worked on several large housing projects where the cost of underground parking has limited the size of the project because it stopped penciling out. Large complexes continue because demand is still high, but the cost is passed on directly to the tenant, which is why people complain that all new housing is expensive. Or maybe the developer wants a rooftop restaurant - those require 1 spot per 100 sf - that's huge!

In my experience, most planners agree that the market should dictate how much parking developers supply (see Donald Shoup) - if the developer doesn't think she can attract tenants without providing parking, then she's free to build as much as she wants, but others are free to try their hands renting units without a spot. I get it, parking in my neighborhood sucks too. There's an empty lot down the street from me; let's pretend I had enough money to buy it and pay the taxes on it (lol). It's a typical 50x100 RD1.5 lot, so take 5' off either side, 15' off the back and 15' off the front, leaving me with 2800sf buildable, which is a nice triplex, maybe two one-beds and a two-bed. But to do that I'd need at least five parking spaces... that eats into my ground floor space and net rentable area, pushes the project up on stilts, increases the amount of steel you need, or pushes the parking underground, adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to construction costs... it very quickly becomes not worth it.

u/clothesliner · 9 pointsr/SeattleWA

I would love this! I often make the decision to drive to work, just because my bus commute is 2.5x the journey time (drive is 25-30 minutes, bus is 70-80 minutes). One of the reasons the bus commute is so long is because my local bus runs once an hour, leaving me with a 20 minute wait for a connection. I have to use it because the P&R fills up before 7am.

I would happily pay even a largish fee if I had a guaranteed spot at the P&R which would allow me to bus to work in a much more reasonable time (I estimate 35-40min).

On topic, this book is super fascinating: https://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X

> In this no-holds-barred treatise, Shoup argues that free parking has contributed to auto dependence, rapid urban sprawl, extravagant energy use, and a host of other problems. Planners mandate free parking to alleviate congestion but end up distorting transportation choices, debasing urban design, damaging the economy, and degrading the environment. Ubiquitous free parking helps explain why our cities sprawl on a scale fit more for cars than for people, and why American motor vehicles now consume one-eighth of the world's total oil production.

u/dkesh · 9 pointsr/AskMen

I'm a radical Shoupian. The cultural idea that parking costs should be mostly paid for by the owner of the building, not the person parking, has led to bad architecture, bad traffic, bad environmental outcomes, and less enjoyable places. We should end minimum parking regulations, and price on-street parking better.

u/Tuilere · 9 pointsr/WaltDisneyWorld

It's fundamentally a user fee. Americans are over-used to "free" parking, and there is a huge cost for that parking built into many prices all over the place.

https://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X is relevant.

u/tpodr · 8 pointsr/woodworking

Understanding Wood Finishing by Bob Flexner is a great book. Lots of details and both how the finishes work and how to use them. Including help identifying what went wrong and how to fix or at least not repeat.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1565235487/ref=mw_dp_mdsc?dsc=1

u/vitingo · 8 pointsr/transit

If you have the technical skills, make maps. I'm a programmer, so I made a transit app for my local system. Get in touch with other transit advocates in your area. Perhaps you can agree on some low hanging fixes and lobby for them. Deepen your understanding of the problem, I suggest Human Transit and The High Cost of Free Parking

u/WindPoweredWeeaboo · 8 pointsr/neoliberal
u/Blortmeister · 8 pointsr/DesirePaths

Sounds like they are following the advice of A Pattern Language.

u/bigyellowtruck · 8 pointsr/AskEngineers

look at curtain wall manufacturers for instance they have downloads for their standard details.

alternatively you could also look up stack-wall storefront. old castle glass makes a lot of stackwall storefront in the US. they use "spider clips" to attach the glass panels to the steel and use structural silicone to seal the joints between the glass panels.

the brick likely won't be load-bearing unless the building is older than the 1950's or so. here are just a few considerations that would come up if this were a real project:

  1. separation between the curtain wall mullions/glazing from the brick.
  2. waterproofing/air sealing between the brick and the new system.
  3. drainage for the two existing roofs
  4. snow accumulation on the glass roof
  5. thermal considerations in the atrium -- thermal stratifications inside, condensation, cleaning, solar heat gain.
  6. cleaning the interior glass.
  7. fire protection of the structural elements -- curtain wall and roof will need steel structure.

    also read 101 things I learned in architecture school. it will help you.
u/TheBlankCanvas · 8 pointsr/gamedev

http://androidarts.com/art_tut.htm

This is widely considered to be one of the most comprehensive art tutorials anywhere.

I urge you to keep in mind; Simplicity. Flat shapes and well coordinated colors (Think about saturation, use color palette creators like Adobe's KULER thing- there are dozens of free ones around the web) A basic, but well explored understanding of artistic principles can net you fresh, competent visuals. Good art doesn't need to be complex.

Other great things:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_scheme
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_elements_and_principles
http://www.amazon.com/101-Things-Learned-Architecture-School/dp/0262062666
http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Color-Light-Guide-Realist-Painter/dp/0740797719

u/JeromyYYC · 8 pointsr/Calgary

I'm very inspired by Jane Jacobs, organic growth, and "density done right." I want to see more growth driven by the market, so long as those who are receiving the benefit are the ones paying the cost. The more choice, the better. I oppose Ward 11 communities having to subsidize growth on the outskirts of the city.

In Calgary, we see a focus on commuting people into a planned downtown core. Allowing more employment/education/housing options elsewhere enables a multitude of transportation options besides driving - if you so choose.

u/Funktapus · 8 pointsr/Portland

Portland (and Oregon as a whole) has a long history of nativism and resentment of outsiders.

Really

Long

Honestly, I'm glad I left after college. I've seen more of the country, I know about what other towns are going through. Most cities would KILL to be in the position Portland is in. Portlanders: you should be welcoming all these smart, ambitious people with open arms. You should applaud when 1 of the 500,000 bungalows in SE gets torn down to make room for more dense housing. You should tell NIMBYs who try to shut down apartment construction in transit corridors to shove it.

It really saddens me to see so many people from my homeland throw away the enormous potential their city has because they want a relatively larger slice of the pie. Please, everyone, get over your aversion to immigrants and high density housing. Portland has a once-in-a-century opportunity to transform itself in to a Great American City. And we have the resources to do it. Now we just need the grit.

u/Agrona · 7 pointsr/Christianity

>Do you think it would work?

Well, yes, but it would also work if they were just walking and not praying. See, e.g. Jacobs.

>Separation of church and state

I've only read the headline: seems fine? I'm assuming that these volunteer-led patrols could also include Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Satanists, Wiccans, Atheists, etc. He does seem to be saying "just walk and talk".

u/aronnyc · 7 pointsr/booksuggestions

There're the epics Gotham and Greater Gotham books on NYC. Jane Jacobs's The Death and Life of Great American Cities is a classic.

u/Maskirovka · 7 pointsr/worldbuilding

Yeah. If you did the setting right it could make a really good lesson for kids about the dangers of privatizing everything and how it's insanely anti democracy.

Real cities work through stochasticity and barely controlled chaos. One need only look at the neighborhoods that were cut in half by the interstate highway projects of the '40s and '50s. "The village" in NYC is a great example of a neighborhood that resisted a highway and remained a thriving area to this day.

You might be interested in the work of Jane Jacobs. She would be the ultimate antithesis of the ideas in the link you posted. It would be a good source of ideas on how the players might feel about living in a privatized city.

http://www.amazon.com/Death-Life-Great-American-Cities/dp/067974195X

http://www.amazon.com/Death-Life-Great-American-Cities/dp/067974195X

u/Shockingly_corrupt · 7 pointsr/Futurology

> see a lot of the country as similar to us.

Exactly! For larger cities that's the problem.

> you can't always walk safely in those cities.

Because we've eviscerated cities with car commuter infrastructure through very specific decisions that subsidize suburbs and artificially shift wealth and investment there.

You should consider reading Where We Want To Live for lots of good ideas around that or The Death and Life of Great American Cities to see just how old these ideas are.

u/Darth_Dave · 7 pointsr/booksuggestions

Have you read anything by Bill Bryson? A Short History of Nearly Everything and At Home are two of the most entertaining, well written and informative books I've ever read.

u/upupuplightweight · 7 pointsr/politics

For every dollar spent on bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure you get a twenty dollar return. What that looks like is an uptick in vitality and health, less emergency rooms visits (as a result of increased cardio vascular health and the downstream impacts of being in the sun like combatting depression and increasing testosterone), less pollution and car accidents, and more people going at a slower rate actually taking in the surroundings, just to name a few positive benefits.

Funnily enough people going slower in the neighborhood (whether its urban downtown or suburbs) has an enormous impact psychologically, and that can be understood by anyone who always rides and decides to go for a walk, if that person then operates a motor vehicle less and chooses to commute via bicycle the impact is all the larger. Simply saying that you don't understand or see how it was worth it doesn't speak to the fiscal responsibility of the expenditure but the ignorance you have regarding the whole picture.

If you'd actually like to have a conversation about this I'd like for you to spend some time reading and watching a few videos.

The idea of cycling and pedestrian centric infrastructure and how it became so prevalent in modern planning.

Health and safety an abstract of a study with cycling. I'd link to dozens if I thought you'd actually read them but here is at least one that is relatively short and simple to understand.

Why prioritizing walking and cycling is important for the future of urban design and the health and wellbeing of society.

There are a great many resources if you're actually curious and wondering whether or not that strip of bike lane was worth it. If you're looking at it in terms of a single neighborhood or even just a city, that's a bit narrow, and you should maybe take that 10,000ft birds eye view of things.

u/rachelleylee · 7 pointsr/Cleveland

Yeah, I'm not sure that Cleveland is ready yet unfortunately. Even in Ohio City - right on the Rapid, across the bridge from downtown, etc - people still want cars. Like others have said, public transport to the suburbs is abysmal so you can't even get to inner ring places like Brooklyn or Linndale without a hassle. I hope one day it'll get better though. It's slowly getting better in Pittsburgh but I still get people who ask how my husband and I can get around with only one car.

PS if you haven't read Jeff Speck yet, you'll like him ;)

u/KitAFD · 7 pointsr/vancouver

Walkable City by Jeff Speck is a good book about this.

I'm not proposing we intentionally increase congestion or remove cars or something like that. But a phenomenon called "induced demand" basically states that increasing road capacity does not solve congestion. When a road is expanded, it makes journey times temporarily shorter, leading people to drive more until this improvement in journey times disappears. End result: traffic crawls at same pace, but now you've added more cars to the road.

Accommodations for car traffic actually harm business. The most successful businesses are walkable ones: see Robson, Granville, commercial, 4th ave. Building wider roads and parking makes the street less pleasant to walk on. People no longer walk along a street hopping from store to store. Businesses suffer.

It is much more cost efficient, environmentally friendly, business friendly and city friendly to invest in other forms of infrastructure: transit, cycling, walking. The NPA's transport policies will hurt communities, hurt businesses and cost us a lot of money.

u/CultureofCon · 7 pointsr/architecture

Buy yourself a copy of Building Construction Illustrated by Francis Ching. You will undoubtedly use it in future classes and even into your first years of internship.

Ching also has a Building "Structures" Illustrated but, honestly, the "Construction" Illustrated will probably be more useful.

Amazon Link

u/OnlyRev0lutions · 7 pointsr/SquaredCircle
u/sodomination · 7 pointsr/seinfeld

a variety of companies have already done this actually. this cologne forum seems to have quite a few colognes people are saying are beachy. What I really want to see is a coffee table book about coffee tables. Not this one though. It's not even also a coffee table!

u/digitalsciguy · 7 pointsr/boston

I 100% agree with your argument about false statistical certainty - this is a tactic people have been using more and more because precision is commonly mis-identified as certainty. Donald Shoup, the great parking policy professor from UCLA, outlines this as a major issue in his parking policy bible and how our entire country's parking volume recommendations and requirements are based on absurdly precise conclusions from statistically insignificant sample sizes.

I guess the only reason I'm taking the time to respond is because of this assumption:

>the total number of rides Uber gets from poorer neighborhoods is much lower than regular cab requests

I challenge this because I'm not sure if you're assuming that people in poorer neighbourhoods don't have smartphones, which is not true. In fact, the biggest reason transit agencies have been able to justify their push for smartphone-based tracking apps is that smartphone use and ownership is more or less equal across incomes and respectably high with low income riders. The only dimension that really varies in smartphone use is age.(Looking for citation - I read this in a report from the NYU Rudin Transportation Policy Center, but they've recently re-arranged their web site.)

Nevertheless, it stands to reason that we may not be getting quite an accurate or fair statistical analysis of the situation, but it certainly does feel like Uber is providing better service. In the least it is much more transparent about costs and has much more granular data available for it to mine.

u/chrana · 7 pointsr/toronto

Read Shoup.

u/washegonorado · 7 pointsr/Denver

I don’t think ample on-street parking is necessary or even desirable for a great neighborhood. In fact, I’d say all the neighborhoods and towns I’ve most enjoyed living in and visiting have all had atrocious parking. There are private parking spaces for rent in Cap Hill if a lack of parking is a personal problem for you. Not to mention, there are minimum parking requirements in Denver (except for parts of downtown) which will force this developer to include plenty of parking in any residential structure.

(Side note, I'd bet that it's easier to find parking on Pearl Street on a Friday night than it is to find an urban planner who believes minimum parking requirements are good for society, but that's another topic, or book)

u/alpaca_obsessor · 7 pointsr/WhitePeopleTwitter

Because it’s generally accepted that unbundling the price of parking from housing aides in greater flexibility of mobility choice, more affordable housing, and ultimately serves as a better way to charge people directly for their use of this ‘commodity.’

Some literature on the topic:

The Hidden Cost of Bundled Parking - Access Magazine

“Unbundling” Parking Costs is a Top Way to Promote Transportation Options - Mobility Lab

Unbundling Parking Isn’t Easy but It’s Worth It - The Greater Margin

The High Cost of Free Parking

u/redditEnergy · 7 pointsr/opengl

1.) Write 3D graphics with DirectX11. Sure I learned OpenGL first but I regret not learning graphics with DirectX11. I personally believe DirectX11 is easier to learn than modern OpenGL.

Resource for both: https://fgiesen.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/a-trip-through-the-graphics-pipeline-2011-index/

Resource for OpenGL: https://learnopengl.com/Introduction
Resource for DirectX: https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-3D-Game-Programming-DirectX/dp/1936420228

If you are a beginner DON'T start with Vulkan or Directx12.

2.) Depends on how much you work at it. Also be smart how much you work / how you work. You said 15hrs a day for 3 years. Learn to pace yourself. If you think this is realistic or healthy, you are going to learn the hard way. However, you are older than me so this approach might work for YOU. But I have friends with a similar mentality and it is just self destructive.

3.) Don't worry too much about this one. The main thing is knowing the difference between a low level vs high level graphics API. OpenGL, DirectX11 are high level (meaning easier to use and require less knowledge). Vulkan and DirectX12 are lower level (harder to use require more knowledge, but can be a lot faster).

Other than that to answer your question: PS4 has its own API. Other than that special case I already listed the APIs used in consoles / PCs.

4.) You need to know linear algebra. Can't get around that. Take a class or pickup a book on it.

Resources:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDPD3MizzM2xVFitgF8hE_ab

Strang, Gilbert, Linear Algebra and Its Applications (4th ed.)

5.) No it is not a waste of time. Any game studio worth its salt uses C++ to do their graphics under the hood. C++ offers complete control over performance. However, a lot of studios do not use STL data structures. Since games/graphics needs to be super optimized and the STL is too generic at times and not fast enough sometimes.
https://github.com/AnthonyCalandra/modern-cpp-features

Also I learned graphics programming very recently so I can definitly relate. I started freshman year 2015 and am currently in my junior year with a graphics internship. A lot of my advice here is based off what I tell freshman at my school, and things I hear from friends working at triple A companies / Nvidia / AMD.

u/zacr24 · 7 pointsr/architecture

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School by Matthew Frederick ins't a bad one either. I also recommend establishing some familiarity with adobe photoshop and illustrator.

http://www.amazon.com/101-Things-Learned-Architecture-School/dp/0262062666

u/ApolloXR · 7 pointsr/Libertarian

Haha, that's awesome and I think you're probably right.

I can definitely understand the hesitation. There are a lot of reasons that going vegan is hard that often get undervalued by people that have already done it and adapted to the lifestyle.

It's hard to imagine what you would eat if you gave up animal products. You probably have favorite foods you'd never be able to taste again. Food is such a big part of our culture, too, that it's scary to consider self-ostracizing yourself. You'd have to tell grandma you can't eat her special chicken soup from the old country anymore. You wouldn't be able to go in on the bulk buffalo wing buy at the next Super Bowl party.

Then there are concerns about nutrition. How do I get enough B12? Omega 3s? Protein? Is a vegan diet even healthy long-term? Will I be sacrificing athletic performance in the sport I care about?

And finally, it can sound exhausting to have to read every label, remember to take the cheese off every burrito order, plan every lunch outing at work so you'll have something to eat, and suffer all the other small inconveniences required of a vegan living in an omnivorous world.

Fortunately, dealing with all those concerns doesn't have to be done all at once. You can reduce your meat consumption and experiment with vegan food while still eating grandma's chicken soup whenever you visit her. Plus, it's better for your health, the environment, and the animals.

I recommend this book to people who are interested in investigating the issue: Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.

u/P4li_ndr0m3 · 7 pointsr/vegetarian

I seriously recommend Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran. It's awesome for understanding why we're doing this and how it helps. It's a look at the factory farming industry and is great if you need to debate family members who think you should start eating meat again.

You can get used copies for like $2, too! That's what I did.

u/eff_horses · 7 pointsr/vegetarian

My main reason for going vegetarian was that I was appalled by the conditions today's farm animals endure in order to become food as I learned more and more about them. If you'd like a good primer on that topic, I'd wholeheartedly recommend Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals; it's incredibly well written and goes into good depth on factory farm conditions as well as other topics related to animal agriculture.

And if it feels like too much to switch entirely all at once, you're allowed to do it in steps. Some people can cut it out all at once, but some need more time, and that's totally okay; your goal should be to transition in a way that will help you stick with it for the long term.

u/Erilis000 · 7 pointsr/worldnews

For further reading check out Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer--very interesting read.

u/an_ennui · 7 pointsr/graphic_design

A Smile in the Mind - great introspective + examples on what makes a design witty or dull, and why the most memorable designs of all time all are witty on some level.

Meggs’ History of Graphic Design - you can read books theorizing about design in general, or you can read books showcasing great design. This is the latter, and is so dense every time I open it up I discover something new.

u/The_Dead_See · 7 pointsr/graphic_design

Megg's History of Graphic Design is the best out there imo.

u/iankeichi · 7 pointsr/graphic_design

The history of graphic design by Meggs:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0471699020

Design basics:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0534625592

30 Typefaces:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1592532780

If you plan on using Adobe software, the classroom in a book series by them is good.

A color theory book would be good too.

u/bigred9 · 6 pointsr/DIY

Start here with "A Pattern Language" considered to be the bible by many architects, but it's very readable for the layman. Well worth $40 and you will learn a lot about the elements of building.

u/shotxiu · 6 pointsr/architecture

My mother bought me this great little arch book when i left for school called 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School. Very useful and easy to read, kind of funny as well. For your situation I would recommend it. http://www.amazon.com/101-Things-Learned-Architecture-School/dp/0262062666

u/rudie48 · 6 pointsr/architecture

its not all about flash designs in sketchup.

i think that the best thing you can do is have a look at this book to get a feel for architecture as a school/ profession http://www.amazon.co.uk/101-Things-Learned-Architecture-School/dp/0262062666

u/_otsegolectric · 6 pointsr/architecture

For Christmas last year my partner bought me 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School.

She was worried that the title was a little condescending, but I'd actually already been considering getting it for myself anyway. It's cute and fun, yet it still has useful tips and information.

u/thalience · 6 pointsr/Physics

J. E. Gordon's book Structures goes into this topic quite a bit.

The short answer is that the compressive strength of masonry is high enough that you can ignore it (assume it is infinite) for practical buildings. What you do have to worry about is your walls toppling over from unbalanced forces. For this purpose, scale models are actually very useful. If your model doesn't fall down, the real thing is probably good (assuming it really is to scale, same materials, etc).

So the builders of the Colosseum probably designed it by playing with blocks.

u/somercet · 6 pointsr/kotakuinaction2

J. E. Gordon's Structures : or why things don't fall down had a very entertaining and informative explanation of the differences between a Greek temple and a Gothic cathedral. One thing he said particularly stood out: "If the Greek architecture of the Parthenon was inspired, the roof was intellectually squalid."

The Greeks laid wooden beams across the pillars and walls, then piled dirt and straw on top and smoothed them into gables, then laid tiles on top of the dirt to shed water. This filling made a good home for vermin, he noted. Trusses were beyond the Greeks.

I would like to see lacy steelwork on the inside, with a copper (treated) or bronzed roof that will resist tarnishing (I would love to see a copper-colored Lady Liberty again, as well). It should be good for 400 years.

u/minerva_qw · 6 pointsr/vegan

It was hard, until all of a sudden it was easy. My method? I learned as much as I could about the issues with animal agriculture. At first I continued to eat eggs and dairy (I'd already been a vegetarian for several years), but I'd feel conflicted and guilty afterward. Still, convenience or cravings would keep me coming back. But I kept reading everything I could find on the subject and one day, suddenly, no amount of tastiness or convenience could justify my continuing to support those practices.

Two of the main sources that informed my decision were the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer and Colleen Patrick Goudreau's Food for Thought podcast.

Eating Animals is an extremely well-written and comprehensive overview of the ethical, environmental, and health effects of animal agriculture. Food for Thought touches a lot on the "why" of veganism, but where Colleen's work has really been helpful to me is in the "how." She explains, among other things, how to make sure you're properly nourished, how to stave off cravings for old foods, how to respond to questions and confrontations, and how to really take joy and pleasure in your new lifestyle.

As far as specific advice, here are a few tidbits.

  1. Learn to cook. Fake meats are fine when you're just getting started, but you're going to find yourself bored and dissatisfied with your diet really quickly if you continue to rely on them. Experiment with new cuisines and vegetables, don't let yourself get into a food rut.

  2. Research nutrition. Vegan Health is a good place to start. You can be healthy and thrive on a vegan diet, but it does have different strengths and weaknesses than an omnivorous diet. As long as you eat a wide variety of unprocessed fruits and vegetables and get enough calories for your size and level of activity, you should get most of the nutrients you need in abundance. There are some things that you should consider supplementing: B-12 (absolutely essential!), omega-3s (recommended), calcium and vitamin D (better to obtain through diet, but can supplement if needed). Don't even worry about protein.

  3. Don't avoid talking about your veganism, but in general it's better if other people initiate the conversation. Keep any dialogue brief and matter of fact unless people seem genuinely interested in learning more. Many people will become defensive because your behavior is making them examine their own more than they are comfortable with. Talk about your experience and your reasons, and avoid telling other people what they should do. Be happy and eat delicious food, and people will come around in time.

  4. Build a support network. Ask questions and share experiences here or on other vegan forums. Join a vegan MeetUp group in your area. Volunteer with relevant organizations. It can seem intimidating to make different consumption choices than those around you, but do whatever you can to remind yourself that you're not alone and that you are making a difference :-)
u/vitaebella · 6 pointsr/2xCBookClub

Eating Animals, Jonathan Safran Foer

u/shark_to_water · 6 pointsr/veg

My transition into veganism was probably initially generated by a general reevaluation of the habits I'd developed and inherited as a kid growing up. My parents never second-guessed the morality of buying and eating meat, and I didn't either. But eventually I moved out of my parents' home and then in a rather haphazard, lazy normal kind of way set about challenging my beliefs as I matured. One of those beliefs was that buying and eating meat is essentially a non-moral issue.

Reading Jonathan Safran Foer's "Eating Animals" was eye opening for me. I became a rather naive sort of vegan after that for a while. A more recent but very distracting spell of interest in ethics has given me the opportunity to refine my beliefs somewhat.

u/Just_Clouds · 6 pointsr/NatureIsFuckingLit

Even ignoring your immediate and inappropriate insult, your post is full of emotional regurgitation of Big Agriculture propaganda and simple marketing campaigns.

You've been sold a commercial you reiterate without realizing it. America is not "Feeding The World™". Since your post was entirely lacking in facts and sources, I'll provide some:

  • 86 percent of the value of U.S. agricultural exports last year went to 20 destinations with low numbers of hungry citizens and human development scores that are medium, high or very high, according to the U.N. Development Program.

  • Only half of one percent of U.S. agricultural exports, calculated according to their value, went to a group of 19 countries that includes Haiti, Yemen and Ethiopia. These are nations with high or very high levels of undernourishment, measured by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

    So no, we are not the World's Breadbasket. Modern factory farming is not sustainable and constitutes at least 10% of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the US. The only purpose it serves is to stuff the coffers of Big Agri.

    Farm Subsidies are a big part of this. Initially meant as "a temporary solution to deal with an emergency", the majority of these (still active and growing) subsidies go to farmers corporations with net worths of $2 million. That's not to mention the > $130 million spent on lobbying last year from these same companies, companies which already own many local representatives from Agricultural meccas in the mid-west.

    Despite the hard data representing the U.S.'s contribution to combat global hunger, Monsanto claims that feeding the rest of the world is America's "moral imperative", and not only in the interest of their bank accounts and stock options.

    No aspect of factory farming is intended to be humane. The sole purpose is to be as cheap as legally possible, and where possible, change the laws. There's much more data and news articles regarding the scummy practices in local politics, in spraying feces-and-toxin coctails into the air because you can't legally keep it in pools (in some areas). I highly recommend you do some research and come to understand the true motivations of this industry.

    I could go on, but others have done it much better. If anyone's interested in a non-preachy and fact-oriented account of a fantastic author researching what would be best to feed his child, I highly recommend Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.
u/Leland_Stamper · 6 pointsr/lowcar

No Kunsler??? The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape by James Howard Kunstler is fantastic.

u/khalido · 6 pointsr/AusFinance

the below is a bit disjointed and more like a ELI10, but based on real life ppl I know:

Paying a lot more than you needed to for something is always a bad idea, whatever its for (unless helping a friend with some new business, like buying overpriced breakfast at their new cafe).

Too many ppl think that if you bought a house to live in it doesn't matter what you paid for it since 30yrs later it should be worth more anyways. From a non-Australian perspective, this is sheer madness, and for me a great illustration of how masses of ppl just buy into bad ideas.

A real, concrete, very hard to deal with issue with overpaying for housing is that lots of ppl did so at the extreme utter super duper maximum of what they could conceivably afford if everything went well. But many signs point to that everything might not go swimmingly, from global events (US/China tariffs, climate change) to local things - an Australian recession triggered by one of the many ongoing factors, like a government unable to implement decent policies, slowing construction, slowing demand for Australian exports, yada yada.

there are real life ppl who have committed to humongous mortgages in Australia in the last 2-3 yrs which are already underwater - this means they can't sell their house if they are struggling with payments, or they bought the wrong thing, or they realised (too late) that they don't like having to pay half their income to the bank, and the associated pressures of needed to stay in that high paying job with no option of ever switching to other things they always wanted to do.

To some extent, this is a firstworldproblem, I mean they have their cake (a nice job) and the icing (a nice house) but its still stressful and lowers quality of life for ppl who are otherwise seemingly doing quite well. I'd argue that debt is a huge mental burden for a significant amount of the people holding overpriced mortgages, and there isn't enough discussion in this country about it.

Besides the personal stuff, there are a lot of big picture society level implications of high housing pricing - see Death and Life of Great American Cities for a nice intro discussion on how housing effects ppl living there.

The other thing which has been ongoing in Australia for many years now is that the very fabric of Australia is changing - I don't know of many older Aussies whose kids stay anywhere close to them - except in a few cases where the bank of mum and dad essentially bought the house or rented one of their IP's for cheap to their kids. This doesn't seem very healthy to me.

Its not good for society to form communities based mostly on income. You end up with communities which are very stratified by income and family wealth, and some books argue quite convincingly that this really makes it hard for real close knit communities to form.

In this sub many ppl blame ppl for overpaying for houses but most ppl just do what society, banks, governments, newspapers, everyone is telling them to do - to take out a max loan, put in a little bit more, then buy a house.

Leaving aside the bottom 25% or so and looking at how the middle class to upper ppl live in well off countries, like Europe and USA, nobody (hyperbole but still) has anywhere close to the debt ratio that so many Australians have. Australia has been a "lucky country" in many respects but that doesn't give Australia a magic exemption from debt.

u/savedby0 · 6 pointsr/HomeImprovement

The Reader's Digest "Complete Do It Yourself" book is pretty handy to have. link to amazon.

Good illustrations and covers a huge amount of material for your home.

EDIT: This is the one I have and not only is it really helpful but also very informative when making new purchases. I buy this as a gift for whenever my friends get a house.

u/stressHCLB · 6 pointsr/Construction

A couple of texts:

Building Construction Illustrated

The Visual Handbook of Building and Remodeling

Also check out the building code that governs residences in your area. For instance the International Residential Code has a handful of structural details that can form the basis of your own details.

u/timbojimbo · 6 pointsr/Design

I have compiled a reading list to be read in order just for this question.

I strongly believe that these books will make you better than 90% of designers out there.

Level One

Start with Thinking with Type it is a really good introduction to all things graphic design. It focuses a lot on typography and it is really basic. I

Next is Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type This book takes what you learned in Thinking with Type and allows you to develope it further in a grid based system. Its good, basic, and has exercises for you to do to play with composition.

Third on the list is Graphic Design: The New Basics It will take what you learned in Thinking with Type and Grid Systems and open them up a little. You learn about design elements other than just type like scale, rhythm and contrast. It really good, and has some projects to do.

Level 2

Now You can get into more "advanced" stuff. There are a lot of books that can go here, but Ill recommend some of my favorites. Its not as important to do this section in order.

Grid Systems in Graphic Design is the bible when it comes to grids. Its german and dry as fuck, but it is basically awesome. Its expensive, but worth every single penny.

Elements of Typographic Style Not alot about grids in here, but it tells you every insane crazy thing that typographers do when they massage text.

You can look at other designers work too. Heres a list of designers I like a lot:

Stefan Sagmeister

Paul Rand

Massimo Vignelli

James Victore

Paul Sahre

Wolfgang Weinhart

Paula Scher

Tibor Kalman

Most of these designers also have books out about their life and work.

Get a sketchbook and play around in it. Draw, collage, glue bubblegum wrappers in there. Just make it a diary of your visual life.

You could also get into Visual Theory here:
Norman Bryson has a book on still lifes that awesome
JWT Mitchell's What do pictures want is great

After this, its just a matter of making a lot of really bad shit and eventually its just a little less worse and maybe one day it might be good.

Ive got more, but that should keep you busy for a year or two.

u/pablogrb · 6 pointsr/AskReddit
u/kovu159 · 6 pointsr/LosAngeles

Uh, go to Palms at 7pm and try to park.

If you actually care about this, here's a great book about the issue. Parking in Westwood can take 15-20+ minutes due to a parking shortage, which promoted an economist to try to determine what pricing strategies could be used to solve the parking shortage in the city. The shortage is very real and has very real costs.

u/thecravenone · 6 pointsr/houston

The source for that stat appears to be this book . It sounds interesting but it's a bit pricey for something I'm only mildly curious about. Looks like Houston Public Library doesn't have it but there's a copy in the UH architecture library if anyone's interested.

u/literallyARockStar · 6 pointsr/Somerville

If all you're doing is moving your car every a few spaces down every two days, why even have a car?

I don't really want to do an extended internet argument about parking and urban planning. This is basically what I'd say, but better: https://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X

u/bartleby · 6 pointsr/milwaukee

"Half as much parking downtown" is an absurd exaggeration.

Also, there is a bloated amount of parking in downtown Milwaukee as it is. It always amuses me that people expect free or subsidized storage for their private vehicles in a dense urban core. People in Milwaukee, and America in general, have a terrible understanding of parking economics.

u/hermitengine · 6 pointsr/gamedev

I too picked up DX11 mostly using rastertek's as a starting point, and then Microsoft's own documentation as a reference. I read rastertek's code as documentation in C++ rather than straight copying the code. After all, its abbreviated code is meant to illustrate D3D usage rather than be a production-level engine.

For a more guided approach, this book might suit you better:

https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-3D-Game-Programming-DirectX/dp/1936420228/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1502869223&sr=8-2

u/Moumar · 5 pointsr/woodworking

Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking Books 1 and 2 by Tage Frid. Book 3 is optional but worth the read in my opinion. Books 1 and 2 go over techniques and skills in an very organised way making it easy to understand. Book 3 looks at projects and their designs teaching you how to design a project and why it should be designed that way. You use to be able to get Books 1 and 2 in a combined paperback for $20 but I can't find it for sale anywhere. There's a box set of all three books for $60 on amazon. You should be able to get the books second hand seeing as the books have been around 20-30 years.

Understanding Wood Finishing by Bob Flexner is probably the best book on finishing. It goes over a range of different finishing techniques and gives tips and solutions to common issues you might have.

There's plenty of other books that are good to read but these are the only ones I'd call essential.

u/With_which_I_will_no · 5 pointsr/woodworking
  1. Yes it is.

  2. Well my experience has shown me the finish turns out nicer if you have a perfectly smoother flat surface. The depth of the finish also seems to improve. I have done some experiments and I think you can tell the difference. I know I have heard people say you can’t improve the appearance beyond a certain grain of abrasive but once you do it… you will change your mind. The better the underlying surface the better the finish will look. I have also noticed better performance with adhesion on well prepared surfaces. I would rather apply many thin coats of finish to a perfectly flat surface. This is an outstanding book. It is the bible of finishing IMO. I would recommend it. I have read it 3 or 4 times. http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Wood-Finishing-American-Woodworker/dp/1565235487/ref=la_B000APORGS_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346872818&sr=1-1

  3. General finish Satin Arm-R-Seal

  4. I like the domino system. I have owned mine for 3 or 4 years I think. I use it all the time. I used to fart around with routers and templates guide bushings. I do cut real old school mortise and tenons sometimes still. These are generally timber frame stuff or very large furniture. As long as the size is right I don’t see much of drawback at all. Price is the only con I can see. It is an expensive tool. The domino and guerilla glue make an amazingly strong joint. The speed and ease of the domino is amazing.

    edit:fixed some spelling and added Bob.
u/admiralwaffles · 5 pointsr/boston

If you'd like a really interesting read, then check out this book. It's called The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup. If you're super lazy, listen to the Freakonomics podcast about it.

u/nickpickles · 5 pointsr/olympia

First, a bit of background: I have lived/worked downtown for the better part of six years and have had little problems with parking. I live/park everyday in what is roughly three blocks from the city center. I also study urban planning, occasionally attend city council planning sub-committee meetings, and like reading about parking.

I disagree with what you are saying. On any given day (yes even during peak hours between 8:45a and 5:30p) there is a considerable amount of open parking spaces within five blocks of Fourth Avenue (I've seen the data). The problem isn't so much the actual amount of parking available but more the perceived amount of parking available. We all wish to find that prime spot right on Fourth, Fifth, or State and if that is the only goal then it will take some driving about an waiting. But, if you go one or two blocks in you will start to find plenty of open, cheap, and long-term parking. Hell, even during state worker rush times my block has numerous nine-hour parking meters available. There are spots across the street that I have seen seldom used in weeks save for an event at the WA performing arts center or a library function. For a city our size we actually have an overabundance of parking, which if one were to follow Donald Shoup's work means we ought to raise prices on the prime parking and during peak hours.

When the plans for new City Hall did not include a lot it raised a stink but makes sense in forward-thinking planning terms. People love to talk about “going green”, upping transit, and increasing walkability but the second you remove a few parking spots you'll see an uproar. Same for the flipside of the coin: those who decry local government subsidies will complain when parking priced well-below market value isn't available at a moment's notice. When you allow non-market value parking, free parking, forced parking spot creation per zoning laws, etc you're actually facilitating more use of the automobile and in turn forcing more wasted gas and "block circling" to be the lucky one to find a convenient spot. What Shoup has found in The High Cost of Free Parking is that it this idea of plentiful cheap parking does not work and only in making a multi-cost parking format where the more convenient spots are adjusted to market value (and raised during peak time while being monitored and price- fluctuating until you find the right price to keep a constant 4/5 of the spots filled) and a cheaper price as you venture further away (also adjusting these prices to represent a regular 4/5 occupancy) do you start to find a sweet spot. Being able to find a prime spot on the busiest street while also having the same availability without the premium tacked-on a few blocks down. Basically: some parking prices will go up while others may drop to meet the demand.

What does this mean for local business? Considering how cheap parking is now and how local businesses and their employees can apply for downtown parking permits you can imagine that at least some of the prime spots are being taken up by those who work in the area. As Shoup demonstrates in his book, rather than having an employee take up a prime spot for 5-8 hours you have a constant flow of customers occupying the spot for less time and paying more. Will this slight increase hurt your business? His findings show, no. Those who would be effected by a minimal increase in price will park a block or two away, per what they are willing to spend. Employees will follow suit. Lower traffic, less gas burned, and more evenly-distributed open spots are the outcome of this pricing system as San Francisco has proven after they adopted Shoup's methods.

As for your comments about parking services being a “cash cow”, that really is not the case for expired meter tickets, which run $15. While other tickets fetch much higher prices (parking in a yellow zone is $75) these are not factored into the parking argument as they are no-park zones to begin with. On the city not meeting it's own needs in parking, I say: the City of Olympia represents all of Olympia, not just downtown. Downtown is one of the few areas in the city where crowded parking is even noticeable. They have taken actions in-line with their Comprehensive Plan (the actual plan for the future) to increase mass transit, bicycling, and walkability in downtown towards a less single-auto orientated city center. The actual parking downtown is sufficient (some would argue overkill) for it's current and future needs, large population surge not-withstanding. A quick look at the past decade of growth in Olympia (specifically downtown population and business expansion) and projections for the future show that we aren't expecting growth on an unmanageable scale anytime soon. I believe if the city implemented a more efficient pay parking structure it would alleviate many of the current parking woes within the main city blocks and could perhaps increase business in the area. Those holding your beliefs of few parking spots downtown might be more inclined to go and spend their money there if they know that a prime spot is probably attainable at any hour of the day, albeit at a higher price, but also with the knowledge that cheap parking is available within a few blocks of their intended destination.

u/energy_engineer · 5 pointsr/sanfrancisco

Some relevant reading on the subject of Free Parking.

By the same author (but free to read), a somewhat old but still interesting read on on free parking cost and city planning. (pdf)

-------
Parking is a consumable and limited resource (especially when observed at a neighborhood level). Limited resources should have an associated cost.

u/harlottesometimes · 5 pointsr/SeattleWA

The High Cost of Free Parking by vintage, urbanist pinup Donald "ShoupDogg" Shoup remains irrelevant in a conversation about customers renting curb space.

u/pkulak · 5 pointsr/Portland
u/zecho · 5 pointsr/fargo

I don't really care about building a tower. Kilbourne Group can do whatever they want. My concern is that building the tower hinges on the city building a ramp and plaza for the tower, which goes above and beyond economic incentives given to other business development. There ought to be a level playing field for developers throughout the city of Fargo. I don't see any reason why Kilbourne Group should get special treatment.

Secondly, parking ramps tend to sit empty when there are free options on the street, even if those ramps are also free (count cars inside and outside the Island Park or City-owned ramp sometime). I know it sounds counterintuitive but there are books about this sort of thing. Unless the ramp is free, people will continue to use on street parking instead, which adds to congestion and noise. If the city wants to encourage use, and help pay for the maintenance and, ideally, other business improvement districts, they ought to add parking meters downtown and offer a ramp for less in fees or for free.

Edit: I realize that parking meters are currently illegal in ND, which is a dumb law that ought to be changed.

u/bryguytwoply · 5 pointsr/Hamilton

It is not a basic quality of life concern, are you insane? More parking is always a good thing? Read this, or any other urban planning book from the past 40 years.

https://www.amazon.ca/High-Cost-Free-Parking/dp/193236496X

u/cinemabaroque · 5 pointsr/urbanplanning

Well, governments sort of do already, but not anywhere near the scale of the subsidies that are given to drivers.

Every car lane on a road that isn't a private toll road is an indirect subsidy for drivers and the frequent mandates that new development contain X amount of free parking spaces. There is a good book on this called The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup and you can read his original paper here for free. Free parking also subsidizes the car experience by taking valuable real-estate and making it free to use by motor vehicles.

If we take into account the subsidies for Oil and Gas Companies that keep the price of gasoline down it emerges that tens to hundreds of billions are being used in the US alone (the article references Australia but I'm more familiar with US statistics) to subsidize driving.

Some cities install bike lanes and bike parking but use a fraction of the resources to do so. Given the long term health benefits of cycling and the ecological impacts of mass driving it makes sense to me to shift some of the massive subsidies already going to drivers to cyclists.

Most cities spend less than 1% of their transit budget on bicycle infrastructure even though a much higher proportion of their population rides a bike regularly or as a commuter.

Given that the US government is willing to subsidize new electric vehicles with multi-thousand dollar tax breaks I see no reason why it should not be possible to write off on one's taxes 25% of the cost of a new bike or some similar scheme.

Alternatively it could set up a system where people who can verify that they bike to work 50% or more of the time receive a $1,000 health tax credit at the end of the year. This would also encourage people to work close to where they live (if your commute is only 2 miles it is a lot easier to achieve this tax credit) which would encourage density.

u/joeswindell · 5 pointsr/gamedev

I'll start off with some titles that might not be so apparent:

Unexpected Fundamentals

These 2 books provide much needed information about making reusable patterns and objects. These are life saving things! They are not language dependent. You need to know how to do these patterns, and it shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to implement them in your chosen language.

u/doebedoe · 5 pointsr/urbanplanning

Fixing existing developments and creating better ones in the future are very different beasts. One very influential group working on latter is the Congress for New Urbanism. A useful volume by a few of CNU's leading practioners is Suburban Nation. One pertinent critique of New Urbanism though is that is has been relatively ineffective about the retrofitting you describe. For that you might check out books like Retrofitting Suburbia.

If you want a good rant on how we got into the mess J.H. Kunstler's Geography of Nowhere is an angry read. On patterns that underlay places we like being in, there is the always present work of Christopher Alexander. For my money one of the most under-read great urbanists of our time is Richard Sennett, particularly his book The Uses of Disorder.

Finally, Jacob's has a lot of prescriptive stuff in Death and Life. I'll give you that it is not as rule-based as most contemporary approaches, but therein lies its greatness.

u/chackoc · 5 pointsr/simpleliving

I'm a big fan of Not so Big House by Sarah Susanka. The book doesn't really contain actionable information -- it's more about presenting and promoting her thesis that we should spend our housing budgets on well designed, well built homes with smaller footprints rather than using the same budget to build a larger house with worse design or materials.

I personally think you should use an architect if you have the budget. The knowledge they can bring to the process isn't really something a layperson can replicate well. If you do want to try designing your own, A Pattern Language would be an interesting read. It can provide some useful rules of thumb regarding specific design elements that you might not otherwise consider.

Also you should familiarize yourself with passive solar building design. If you consider the concepts when developing a design and choosing a site you'll be able to leverage them for cheaper heating/cooling at little or no additional design cost. Building a well-insulated structure (a big part of passive solar design) also makes for a more comfortable home in terms of thermal regulation, noise management, air quality management, etc.

u/chronic_cynic · 5 pointsr/AskEngineers

Structures: Or why things don't fall down. Excellent if you're considering civil or mechanical.

https://www.amazon.com/Structures-Things-Dont-Fall-Down/dp/0306812835

u/benyqpid · 5 pointsr/vegan

Every time I read something like this, I think of this quote:

> “This isn't animal experimentation, where you an imagine some proportionate good at the other end of the suffering. This is what we feel like eating. Tell me something: Why is taste, the crudest of our sense, exempted from the ethical rules that govern our other sense? If you stop and think about it, it's crazy. Why doesn't a horny person has as strong a claim to raping an animal as a hungry one does to killing and eating it?"

Jonathan Safran Foer

u/TitoTheMidget · 5 pointsr/Christianity

> I guess what I'm trying to ask is, where should we draw the line?

I'm not a vegan (I am a vegetarian though so I guess I'm just a really bad vegan), but I typically dislike this line of inquiry on any subject. We're constantly drawing lines in life. While it's fair to ask where those lines should be drawn, I feel like more often than not this is a rhetorical tool to justify taking no action at all, rather than to really get a sense of where that line is.

I could apply this reasoning to anything - sure, I should recycle, but where do I draw the line? Should I reuse lightly soiled toilet paper? The fact is we don't have the time or the passion to go all-out in everything we do in life, but enough people taking the minimum effective action still adds up to a huge difference. A quote that's always resonated with me is from Jonathan Safran Foer, the author of Eating Animals. Someone posed the "Where do you draw the line?" argument to him in an interview, and he gave a pretty detailed answer, but the snippet that stuck with me was "We have such resistance to being hypocrites, that we would prefer to be fully ignorant and fully forgetful, all the time."

u/Duvo · 5 pointsr/GraphicDesign

Hey, I'm not too sure how much I can help with the college choices, I come from a different country so I don't know enough about that, but I am big on learning things myself and if you'd like to strengthen your knowledge in graphic design, maybe even while studying, here are some awesome books to get yourself going in the right direction:

Meggs' History of graphic design: I love this book. before I bought it I found another on design as a whole but this is specifically related to graphic design. with a lot of briefs it helps to know what kind of association your font choice will create, and it's useful to look back at old graphic design to see if there's something you can re-purpose for your brief. if that's the case, this book is for you. Megg doesn't leave anything out too! it starts all the way back from the beginnings of written language!

The A - Z of Visual Ideas: How to Solve any Creative Brief: Imagery is almost as important to a brief as type. You'll need to be able to create something that grabs attention and gets a message across as quick as possible. If you're having trouble finding a way to express an idea, flip open this book and page through countless ways you could do it.

How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul: Work experience is the best kind of learning there is. and if you feel like you're lost when you begin, this book will be your faithful mentor. There's a lot about freelancing and starting your agency too, it's just invaluable all around.

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design: If you'd like to become a web designer, this is a good book to start with. I'm an experienced web designer so I find some of the points a bit obvious, but I found a lot to learn all the same.

I don't like to waste time when it comes to learning things through the books I've bought so I can tell you first hand that these books are absolutely useful and won't just waffle on about what successful agencies have done. I'd also like to let you know that one of the finest graphic designers my previous agency had was a guy who came straight from high school and just really loved doing graphic design. When he left, he left a huge space to fill. On the other hand, I've met designers with honours degrees who didn't stay for longer than a year. But get a degree if you can, it helps to get your foot in the door. Getting a masters is awesome, and if you went magna cum laude I'm sure you would knock it out the park :) you aren't over your head in the slightest.

u/Rubix1988 · 5 pointsr/UniversityofReddit

Francis Ching has some good reference books for a starter: Building construction illustrated and Architecture: Form Space and Order. It might be a good idea to regularly visit sites like ArchDaily to see what contemporary architects are doing. If you want to start learning design programs, try downloading SketchUp or Rhino (both have free versions). Good luck!

u/SameCupDrink3 · 5 pointsr/architecture

Draw. Draw. Draw.
When you're tired of drawing, draw some more.
Focus on light and proportion. learn from the classics. learn about hierarchy. Visit buildings or even streets or neighborhoods that have some significance. Take a lot of pictures and then draw those pictures. Buy this book and draw the pictures and diagrams inside it.
Blogs are nice to help you build a vocabulary and to help you figure out what you like, but for now you should focus on only the greatest works by the greatest architects. The only modern architecture you need to look at is Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies Van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier. Look at different scales of design. You might find yourself more interested in furniture design or interior design, or you could gravitate towards landscape architecture or urban design.

Also, do some research about the schools you are applying to. Are they focused on construction or design? Theory or built works? conceptual collage or technical drafting? is there a style that is preferred by the professors? Where I went to undergrad, Corb was the messiah and Gehry is the antichrist. Every school has a different pedagogy, and its important to find one that you can work with. You will spend many sleepless nights in studio so try to find the best fit for you.

Other than that, enjoy your freedom while you still have it! Good luck and have fun!

u/sinkface · 5 pointsr/architecture

Ching's Form, Space and Order would be a fun introduction to the basics, particularly if you enjoy hand rendered illustrations.

u/SmallTrick · 5 pointsr/SeattleWA

Many cities in this area do have the core of walkable infrastructure in them and just require a bit of change to make them better. There is an entire sub-genre of urban development books related to the very concept of turning sprawl into dense walkable neighborhoods (e.g. Sprawl Repair Manual, Retrofitting Suburbia, Walkable City).

Puget Sound Regional Council takes these kinds of issues into consideration with regional planning. City planners also take these kinds of things into consideration. There is very high interest in building more urban walkable neighborhoods even in suburbs. The problem is it takes time and money for cities to implement these rules, and construction projects to correct deficiencies, and the building stock to turn over.

u/iamktothed · 4 pointsr/Design

Interaction Design

u/ghettomilkshake · 4 pointsr/SeattleWA

Personally, I don't think a full repeal to all of the residential zoning is the best practice. A full repeal would likely only increase land values
(here's a good explainer as to how that can happen). I do believe they need to be loosened significantly. At the rate this city is growing, it needs to have all of the tools necessary to help increase density and banning thing such as having both an ADU and DADU on single family lots and requiring their sizes to be such that they cannot accommodate families is a bad thing. Duplexes and triplexes also should be legal in single family zones. These allowances also should be paired with strategic rezones that allow for some sort of corner market/commerce zone within a 5-10 minute walkshed of every house in SFZs in order to make it reasonable for people in SFZs to live without a car in these now densified neighborhoods.


In regards to more reading: are you looking for more reading regarding Seattle zoning law exclusively or are you looking for reading recommendations that follow an urbanist bent? For Seattle specific stuff, The Urbanist and Seattle Transit Blog post a lot regarding land use in the city. If you are looking for books that talk about general city planning the gold standard is The Death and Life of Great American Cities. I personally really enjoyed Walkable City, Suburban Nation, and Happy City.

u/therm · 4 pointsr/HomeImprovement

I've been doing my own home maintenance and repair for about forty years, and I think these Readers Digest books -- here and here -- are very good. I've used them through multiple editions, and I bought them for my son-in-law when they bought their first house.

Some specialized topics (like gas fireplaces) receive only the most superficial treatment, but that's inevitable in books like these. One thing you'll learn is when to try something yourself and when to call someone. For instance, I've hooked up gas stoves and dryers, but when it comes to working with the gas lines themselves, I'd rather pay someone who knows what he's doing. And so far I haven't asphyxiated anyone or blown anything up.

Anyway, those are the books I've recommended to quite a few people. Good luck.

u/fweng · 4 pointsr/ForeverAlone

Fuck. FUCK. 'Demons', I've just read your post, and every comment that followed, and I've gotta say this to you, and to every single one of you. I can relate. Hugely. I just feel like I'm now at the other side, looking back.
I only joined Reddit a couple of months ago having finally 'got' it, and am slowly building my subscriptions; Funny, WTF, world news, etc. I am very new to FA. I joined because my last girlfriend was 7 years ago and I'm not a womanising creep, thus ForeverAlone.
I am 38 in a month but here's the thing - I feel, finally, like I got comfortable in my own skin only a year or two ago. Everything kinda congealed into me and it 'only' took three and a half decades.
When I was in my early twenties, I was a potsmoking, over-eager mess. I was a try-hard, an amiable buffoon, an idiot. That is because during those adult-forming years, 15,16,17, etc, I was truly alone. I literally had no friends. I was fat and bullied in school. Demons, you say "Even if I were to be designated as the bitch of the group, I'd much rather be included in a clique than excluded." Trust me, you don't. I thought these schoolkids were my friends - after all, they were all I had - but they had no interest in me beyond having me around to make them feel better about themselves. After school, I never saw any of them again. (I did call, but no-one wanted to hang out. I quickly got the message.) This was 1990. Years later, when fucking Facebook appeared, I found them and was about to add them as friends until I saw pictures of the vacation to Spain they went on straight after school, and my heart dropped; It took about 15 years to realise they never invited me... but I digress. The point is being the bitch of any group is NOT acceptable.
After school, I was ForeverAlone with a vengeance. If FA existed then - fuck, there wasn't even The Internet - I would've cried tears of joy although nothing would've changed on the ground and I still would've locked myself indoors (particularly over those lonely weekends), atrophying and not 'developing'.
What changed for me was University. (I'm British, and not sure of the US equivalent term. College? I was 18-21). I took a course 100 miles from home and arrived with literally zero friends in my life (I called this my secret shame). It took a while. It was still awkward. But the friends I made were based on something stronger than those immature and critical fuckers I was at school with and, 20 years on, 95% of my friends today are those Uni guys, or their friends.
BUT... I do have a point. There is no perfect. Neither is there some idyllic, Leave it to Beaver childhood and family unit that is the only way to springboard from into the perfect life. We are all fucked-up mammals with our own insecurities and dreams and desires. There is no right or correct way but at the same time there's no wrong way either. Life is a journey each and every one of us is on and we have to nip and tuck our concerns and make them better so we can make ourselves better.
Now let me see if I can bring everything together into something resembling coherence...
Not everyone here has my experience being physically or mentally bullied at school although I'm sure some of you do. The point is we already have backgrounds and experiences to draw upon and share. This is what makes us us, no matter how unpleasant, or too personal, or even trivial you may think it is to everyone else. Even what you'd consider no personality is a personality.
I used to feel exactly the same when it came to relationships with people. Why couldn't I make people laugh, like X? Why aren't I as interesting as Y? This is all comparison shopping with others, and doesn't help. I was aware of this around my mid-Twenties, and learned to stop caring (or more accurately, I learned to stop dwelling so much) by my early-30s, and that's when some door of perception opened. I'm not these other people. I'm me. I have my own take on things, and my own way of dealing with them - and if I'm unhappy about something, I have to change or die.
I guess it took the passing of time for me to get to this stage, as opposed to having some grand revelation, or cure. I just chilled a little when it came to my own insecurities, seeing it as part of me.
You do have life experiences. Using two as an example - and forgive my assumptions - we have grown up in different countries, so there's a wealth of differences there, as well as similarities. There's also a generational gap of your early Twenties and my late Thirties. We have both different perspectives, and similarities too. As my 91yo grandfather said after I'd shown him some gadget back in 1988, "You're never too old to learn".
And then he died.
So here's my fucking perspective, for what it's worth:-

    1. There are no rules and no givens.
    1. Every life is unique. Just because it feels wrong, doesn't mean it is.
    1. And if it does feel wrong, welcome to Life Experience, Difficulty Setting: HARD. You're going to learn things way beyond the fluffiest, happiest, isn't-everything-peachy? guys out there.
    1. Unhappiness and dissatisfaction is your brain's way of flashing up a warning. You may now take steps to rectify things.
    1. Anything can be changed.

      My current worry is the lack of a lady in my life. Almost all my University friends have married, and are now having babies left, right, and centre. I am therefore dipping into the /r/seddit universe, although I'm not comfortable with it. (I wrote THIS post to voice my concerns and got downvoted to HELL.) I remain unsure about the whole 'seduction' side of things, but if you read the replies to my post, you will see a lot of sanity regarding taking steps to get to where I want to be (i.e. meeting the woman I want to settle down with.) Seddit, surprisingly, reccomends THIS book I bought 2 days ago. It has nothing to do with 'seduction' per se, but overcoming depression and negative perceptions of ourselves first and foremost. I have only just started this book but it makes so much sense, it's unreal. I urge you to look into this.
      Finally, and from my perspective of being nearly 40, rejoice in your youth even though it seems futile. Okay, you've never had that first kiss, or a first date. You haven't driven a car, or been to a party. But the fact you're expressing your frustrations here tells me they're IN THE POST.
      Remember, the fact that you're concerned at all marks the beginning of any change.

      TL;DR EDIT - To give you some kind of solution, read, motherfucker! Learn facts, pick up some history, watch documentaries. Fill your brain with knowledge, or comedy, or drama. Watch movies, seek out your favourite directors, get some foreign films under your belt. Explore music. Sample all genres. Listen to classical composers. DANCE. Wander through museums, and art galleries, and cafes. Travel and discover and explore and embrace your very fucking existence, and not only will your life feel more rich and varied but before you know it you'll have a treasure trove of knowledge and conversation in your head, you interesting son-of-a-bitch. Just don't cave in to years of sexual absence and have accidental sex with a Thai hooker. Having said that, you might just get a story out of it. Just be careful who you share those kind of things with.
u/ReverendDizzle · 4 pointsr/booksuggestions

Off the top of my head here are some interesting books I've read (or reread) lately that I think you might enjoy and fall nicely into the young-adult-expanding-their-mind category.

The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity Is Hurting Young Women by Jessica Valenti

Really interesting look at what the implications of the American obsession with virginity/purity are.

---

The Communist Manifesto (edited/annotated by Phil Gasper)

Everybody should read the Communist Manifesto. It's too big of a part of history (and of America's history of opposition to communism) to not read. Gasper's heavy annotations make this an absolutely top-notch edition to read.

---

At Home by Bill Bryson

Really enjoyable overview of the history of domestic life and it's myriad of quirks and traditions.

---

Escaping the Endless Adolescence: How We Can Help Our Teenagers Grow Up Before They Grow Old by Joseph Allen

Very interesting look at the current trend in America of lengthening adolescence and how our extension of what we consider adolescence well into the 20s is harming young adults.

u/reillser · 4 pointsr/AskHistorians

I recommend reading 'At Home' by Bill Bryson. He goes through this in detail.
From what I recall, houses used to be just one big room, animals, people, servants all in the one place. Over the centuries, people got bette at building walls, so they built these buildings higher - this showed your wealth and was much less smokey. As there was all that extra room above head height, primitive first-floors came about, pretty much just elevated sleeping areas for the main family in the home. That's when people began sleeping upstairs, hundreds and hundreds of years ago.
Kitchens were at the back of the house so that visitors didn't need to see them. Dining rooms were adjacent to kitchens for ease of service.

I didn't include dates here as I'm sleepy can't can't remember, but the book is a great read http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0767919394

u/zeptonaut20 · 4 pointsr/Detroit

There are definitely examples of it.

If you're at all interested in how a walkable city is built, I highly recommend the book Walkable City by urban designer Jeff Speck, who, among other cities, has helped in Grand Rapids in the last 15 years.

One of the things that he talks about is that streetcar systems are cost-effective for exactly this reason: private real estate owners will often heavily subsidize (or pay entirely) for street cars to connect their properties to other walkable areas. In addition, they're a great way to bring new areas into the fold of walkability: if you have a streetcar running through walkable areas A, B, and C, and extend the line slightly into unwalkable area D, people will automatically assume that D is a soon-to-be walkable area that still has affordable property and start buying and developing properties there, turning the whole thing into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Once D is walkable, you extend the line a little bit more into area E, and the whole process repeats.

u/b_kraken · 4 pointsr/architecture

[Building Codes Illustrated](Building Codes Illustrated: A Guide to Understanding the 2012 International Building Code https://www.amazon.com/dp/0470903570/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_cr46wbYAW1WCR) and [Building Construction Illustrated](Building Construction Illustrated https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118458346/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_au46wbHJM3Q9N) are good ones too.

edit: link

u/tppiel · 4 pointsr/web_design

It definitely looks better than anything I did when I was 15, back in 1999 (with Frontpage and no coding skills back then).

That said you seem to have a grasp of HTML and CSS. Your next step should be looking into some design material to improve in that front (color, size, composition). I recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Design-Hackers-Reverse-Engineering-Beauty/dp/1119998956

u/axvk · 4 pointsr/webdev

If you want to be a front end developer then design will always be something that you will have to deal with. Most developers view design as a luxury, but it makes a big difference to the clients. Since clients cannot see your code, they judge the quality of the site by the design. I suggest reading up on typography and white space. Here is a Small Preview.

Bootstrap is a good framework to use because it adds some default best design practices and it makes your font helvetica by default which is one of, if not the most liked fonts.

I personally have a CS degree and can't draw if my life depended on it, but I know some basic rules to follow. Also I will use already made themes and if all else fails I will pay a graphic designer to help me out.

Here are some things that i suggest:

u/Odjur · 4 pointsr/woodworking

My brother got me that book for last Christmas. It doesn't go over any particular topic in depth but it really provides a great overview of most woodworking topics. I particularly appreciated the sections on joinery and different wood types.

The next book I would add to your collection is Understanding Wood Finishing by Bob Flexner. It's a great read that provides useful information I just couldn't find online.

u/toastspork · 4 pointsr/Economics

Most American suburbs have zoning that mandates a specific minimum amount of free parking. The point where it becomes a legal requirement is the point where it moves back from being a symptom to a cause. Now you can't easily walk to the next building over, because it's a half mile away, across two large parking lots that have no safe areas for pedestrians.

If mall and office building developers were allowed to build smaller parking lots with fewer spaces, and were allowed to charge for it, you'd better bet they would.

References: The High Cost of Free Parking, by Donald C. Shoup

u/streever · 4 pointsr/rva

Well, somebody pays for it: the actual cost of a free parking spot in an otherwise develop-able area is $5/day.

It would be obnoxious of me to expect you to read all 733 pages of The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup (https://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X), so I'll instead recommend this incredibly condensed and less broad 21 page paper by the same author on the topic (http://www.uctc.net/research/papers/351.pdf).

But, if you're really really really into fairly boring & long, exhaustively researched topics, I'd highly recommend the full book :D.

u/HDThoreauaway · 4 pointsr/WhitePeopleTwitter

You should take a skim through Donald Shoup's The High Cost of Free Parking, and give a Google to "induced demand." It becomes clearer what the operating theory is.

u/stiflin · 4 pointsr/Portland

There's extensive, well-regarded research showing that parking requirements raise rents: http://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Parking-Updated-Edition/dp/193236496X Professional economists overwhelmingly agree with that book's core claims: http://www.igmchicago.org/igm-economic-experts-panel/poll-results?SurveyID=SV_3aeMp7lK74rrVFa

You can choose it ignore it, and there's no such thing as conclusive "proof", but saying the evidence isn't incredibly strong is basically sticking your head in the sand.

u/[deleted] · 4 pointsr/Austin

For a concrete example:

One study written about in this amazing book found evidence that the minimum parking requirements in one area of LA increased the cost of housing by 26%

u/AEQVITAS_VERITAS · 4 pointsr/GoldandBlack

Donald Shoup has a book by the same name that is fascinating
Here is an excerpt and you can buy it here

u/johnwalkr · 4 pointsr/lowcar

I thought you were going to talk about something else, which is how public planning currently values free parking above pretty much everything else. It's really shaped how cities sprawl. There's a whole book about it.

u/bmore · 4 pointsr/baltimore

I have no problem with people who have no other option except to drive to work, but I don't see why they shouldn't have to pay extra to leave their cars parked the majority of the day/night on what could otherwise be more productive property within a community.

I recommend this book as a good primer on the issues parking subsidies cause.

I don't think where I live really matters in regards to my opinion. I work in Mt. Vernon, I've lived in Mt. Vernon before, and I'll likely live there again.

If you look at the last downtown partnership studies, you'll see that a majority of Mt. Vernon residents work within 2 miles of their residence, and still drive to work despite having multiple other less harmful modes of transportation as options. If they choose to do that I believe they should have to pay more for their choices. I'm sorry that the few exceptions you identify would suffer as well, but I think despite your complaints the neighborhood improves with more transit, bike, and walking options, as well as more retail and residential properties, even at the expense of parking and road space for individual car users.

u/Matemeo · 4 pointsr/programming

I had the same problem until I picked up a book on DirectX. The author did a little bit of hand waving, but most everything was explained from the ground up. It really, really helped solidify my understanding of how graphics applications are implemented.

I think it was this: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-3D-Game-Programming-DirectX/dp/1936420228

I'm sure there are other books that do well as well, but that particular book really made me get it.

u/old_skool · 4 pointsr/architecture

In my humble opinion, the following are great and important reads for a newcomer into the subject.

Experiencing Architecture by Rasmussen

Any and ALL of Frank Ching's books, starting with Form, Space and Order

Sun, Wind, and Light is a timeless reference book.

The Dynamics of Architectural Form by Rudolf Arnheim is a great study on environmental psychology.

Also, Pattern Language if you're a complete masochist and really want to go DEEP into the subject.

I've got more if you're interested, but that should keep you busy for quite a while haha. Best of luck and I hope you find them as enjoyable as I have.

u/choomi · 4 pointsr/architecture

I was a delivery driver and worked 15-20 hours per week while in undergrad. I also worked about the same amount during graduate school, which was much harder. The key is to work smart, not hard. It took me 4 years of school to realize that up to 50 percent of my time spent in studio was wasted. When you are in school for hours with getting seemingly nothing done, just go home. You will soon recognize when you will be productive and for how long. Once you reach this point, find a part time job (preferably with tips) that fills those gap times.

I would also recommend this book:

http://www.amazon.com/101-Things-Learned-Architecture-School/dp/0262062666

I didn't read it until I was almost done with my masters, but it contains a lot of concepts and tips that I spent years realizing on my own.

Hopefully this helps you a bit, and good luck!

Edit: I suggest a job with tips, because it will generally give you a higher hourly rate than many other part time jobs so you can work less and still support yourself.

u/arctander · 4 pointsr/architecture
  • 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School
  • Learn how to bill for your value, not for your time. The value to your client of a 5 hour design is likely much higher than you realize. The clients perception of how long it would take them to execute the same design is closer to the value than how long it took you.
  1. Initial client meeting
  2. Schedule review meeting a week to ten days out
  3. Do the work quickly and professionally
  4. File the work away, work on another project
  5. At the appointed time, no sooner, meet with the first client to review your work. Rinse and repeat.
  6. Clients are more accepting of a higher bill because calendar time adds the perception of value - they tend to assume that they are your only client and that you spent 'ten days' on their project.
  7. Be great to your clients, referrals are the easiest way to sell your talent and service.
u/55049305K · 4 pointsr/aww

Although I think it's unrealistic for most people to cut meat out of their diets, I do think it's important that the general population understands what factory farming entails. It's very difficult to find videos about farming that aren't sensationalized in some way, so take this with a grain of salt:
Inside Canada's Factory Farms

People who actually work on these type of farms, if there are inaccuracies in this video, I encourage you to reply and clarify.

A lot of people also praise the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.

u/MimiWritesThings · 4 pointsr/vegetarian

Since you said you're a meat lover, I'd encourage you not to rely on substitute meat (fake chicken, sausage, etc.). Even though some of them are good, chances are they're not going to live up to actual meat (at least not at first), you may get disappointed and then ultimately get discouraged and go back to eating meat.

Instead, I'd recommend a gradual process where you stop eating one type of meat at a time, starting with your least favorite and ending with your favorite. This will simultaneously encourage you to keep going (because it will be easier to stick to) and it will also slowly train your mind to start focusing your diet around other types of food! You may also start viewing meat in a different way, and may find that it's actually a little weird-feeling when you eat it.

I'd also recommend learning more about factory farming and where food comes from. I know many people recommend Eating Animals, by the author of Everything is Illuminated (great book). He wrote it when he was about to have a son and wanted to explore the farming business and decide how to raise his son (vegetarian or not). He's a fantastic storyteller, and you'll see it has some amazing reviews :)

Whatever path you take, I congratulate you for having a higher consciousness about your food! Best of luck!

u/slightlyfaded · 4 pointsr/videos

What an amazing video! It's fascinating to see him think about it because he's purely speaking him mind - not worrying how what he says will be perceived by others, and how it fits in society and what not.

As someone else said, a lot of kids don't feel like they have an option, or are tricked into eating meat - and then when you're old enough to decide for yourself, it's a big thing like rejection religion - your whole family may not take it well.

It's great that she just listens to her kid and respects what he says, rather than forcing him to do things. Think kind of thinking should be nourished and sadly so often it's just shut down and the kid is told to go along with what "everyone" does.

I'd also like to plug Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. Great book, and he's not preachy about it at all.

http://www.amazon.com/Eating-Animals-Jonathan-Safran-Foer/dp/0316069884/

u/NuckFut · 4 pointsr/graphic_design

The Bringhurst Bible

James Victore's book is amazing. It's a quick read but is packed with inspiration.

Envisioning Information is great for info design.

Megg's History of Graphic Design


The rest of these I haven't read yet, but here is a list of things I currently have on my amazon wish list:

Some People Can't Surf by Art Chantry

Saul Bass: A Life in Film and Design by Jennifer Bass

Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design by Michael Bierut

Damn Good Advice by George Lois

How To Be A Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul by Adrian Shaughnessy

How To Think Like A Great Graphic Designer by Debbie Millman

The Design of Dissent by Milton Glaser and Mirko Ilic

Iron Fists: Branding the 20th Century Totalitarian State by Steven Heller

u/TherionSaysWhat · 4 pointsr/graphic_design

Firstly, drawing, Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop are just tools. Learn how to use them well but they are only tools. Design is more psychology than it is software expertise. Learning the tools is important of course, just don't confuse the two. Design is the "why" and "what" you are trying to communicate, the function. Art, illustration, type, etc is the "how" you create the form. Form follows function.

With that said. Keep drawing. Everyday. Look into illustration as an art discipline, it's very closely connected to graphic design as far as purpose and mindset. Far more so than traditional studio arts. (painting, sculpture, etc).

Learn typography. Really learn the difference between typeface and font and families. Learn why serifs work for body copy generally better than sans. Learning how to hand render type, and do it well, is an invaluable skill especially paired with illustration.

In my view these are essential to add to your reading list:

u/gregK · 3 pointsr/programming

I disagree somewhat with that distinction. The reason I say this is that a few of the patterns in GoF where actually documented as idioms in Advanced C++ Programming Styles and Idioms and recast as patterns. On the other hand, some purists argue that the GoF patterns are not even real patterns in the Alexandrian sense, therefore they would all be idioms.

So if you are sticking to the GoF definition of patterns, they aren't much more than idioms. If you look at the Alexandrian patterns, then I might agree with you. A good distinction would be to limit idioms to language specific solutions and real patterns to solutions that arise independent of the language. I edited my reply above to reflect this.

u/goatsarecoming · 3 pointsr/architecture

Very cool how much you want to support him.

The biggest misconception about the industry is probably how little math we actually use. There is of course a spectrum to our field that spans from sculptors and artists to programmers and engineers. By and large, however, we are visual people who hone our skills by practicing art. I was happily surprised in my first term of college to find out how much time we'd spend sketching and drafting. Hopefully that's appealing to him!

As far as what skills to learn: I took a CAD drafting class in high school that gave me a good head start in college. Sketchup is easy to pick up and I'd encourage him to get comfortable with Rhino to really be able to model digitally. I would not recommend Revit at this early stage as it's extremely technical. Physical modeling is also helpful. I grew up on Legos before moving to paper / cardstock / cardboard sketch modeling. Messy and fast and gives three-dimensional insight you can't get from a page or a screen, plus having the ability to make clean models is a great way to impress professors early on.

Regarding reading material. These books made an enormous impression on me:

u/dreamKilla · 3 pointsr/AskReddit

Note: links are to amazon though any library or used book will do.

On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee

A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander

On War by Von Clausewitz

Influence by Robert Cialdini

Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky

Improving Performance: How to Manage the Whitespace in the Organization Chart by Geary Rummler

Books by Edward T. Hall

Books by Edward Tufte


Books by Jiddu Krishnamurti

The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action by Donald Schön

let me know if you want more....

u/Random · 3 pointsr/gamedev

The Art of Game Design - Jesse Schell is very very good.

Game AI (Millington and Funge new edition iirc) is very very good.

Some non-game-design books that are very useful for those doing game design:

Scott McLoud: Making Comics (the other two in the series are good but the section on plot, characterization, and development in this one is great)

Donald Norman: The Design of Everyday Things. (How design works and how people interact with technology and...)

Christopher Alexander et al A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, and Construction (Thinking about scale and design elements and modularity and...)

Kevin Lynch: The Image of the City (How do urban spaces work - essential if your game is set in a city - how do people actually navigate)

Polti: The 36 Dramatic Situations (old, quirky, examines how there are really only a few human plots)

Matt Frederick: 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School (how to think about and execute simple art, improve your design sense, ...)

u/JoanofLorraine · 3 pointsr/books

Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language isn't just the best book on architecture I've ever read, but one of the best books I've read on any subject. It talks about architecture on both its highest and most basic levels—from the design of cities to the location of window seats—and it's remarkably wise, lucid, and insightful. It reflects a very particular philosophy of architecture and urban planning, but it influenced my views on countless topics, and I think about it almost every day.

u/The_MadStork · 3 pointsr/architecture

Here it is on Amazon. I dug this as a beginner

u/DrKenshin · 3 pointsr/architecture

As an architecture student who asked himself this same question not so long ago I'd say:

  • Modern Architecture: A Critical History by Kenneth Frampton.
    The most introductory, simple to understand, first book you should pick up when ready to jump into some actual architecture. This is the book that you need to read even before architecture school, for your entrance test and just because.

  • Architecture of the City by Aldo Rossi.
    This one is also an easy read that will make you realise how important architecture is for us as human beings, as a society, as a city, as a community, as people... how architecture is not just a free standing building by some "starchitect" in a magazine but a part of something bigger. Great read and one of my favourites.

  • Towards a new architecture by Le Corbusier.
    Love him or hate him Le Corbusier changed the world and studying and understanding how and why will greatly help you understand architecture today. This book might be a bit philosophical and theoretical but it's written for people to understand, not just architects. A must read I'd say.

  • Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture by Christian Norberg-Schulz.
    I'd say this is a book you should read to complement and expand on Aldo Rossi's. Genius Loci is the spirit of a place, it's character and distinctive self. Great read.

  • Architecture As Space by Bruno Zevi.
    Great book to understand how Architecture are not just façades and photos but designed spaces and experiences and how we experience them with our senses, the way they make us feel. This book will make you look at architecture from a different perspective, and you will since then experience the world differently.

    BONUS:

  • 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School by Matthew Frederick. Simple and to the point, might not seem like much and honestly don't take it too seriously but it's nice to keep around and going through it will remind you of things that sometimes we tend to forget.

    Hope this helps and gets you started on a good path. :) Have a nice day.
u/rayhan314 · 3 pointsr/Design
u/luckycrox · 3 pointsr/architecture

Check out:
“ 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School”

by Matthew Frederick.
ISBN-13: 978-0-262-06266-4

Amazon Link

u/angrypom · 3 pointsr/civilengineering

Yeah, need some fun books rather than dry textbooks. J. E. Gordon's books [1] [2] are my favourite :)

u/TeamToken · 3 pointsr/AskEngineers

Not along the lines of Electrical but I think Structures: Or why things don't fall down by JE Gordon is without a doubt the best book I've ever read on the Materials side of engineering. Technical in nature but so well written it reads like a novel. Written in the 60's but still just as relevant today. Got a recommendation by Bill Gates. Elon Musk read it when he wanted to understand more about materials science and loved it. Should be required reading for all freshman

u/aladdinator · 3 pointsr/KerbalSpaceProgram

Aww Yisss, that book is fantastic. It was recommended to me by coworkers when I was interning in a space company.

http://imgur.com/8DwcXga (Proof)

Just pulled it out and another book that was recommended to me called Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down

u/freudjung_deathmatch · 3 pointsr/TrollXChromosomes

I read a neat book not too long ago by Jonathan Safran Foer that talked about meat-eating as a cultural thing. It argued in part that one of the reason some people get so upset by others being vegan/vegetarian is that it is a deviation from the cultural standards they expect. It was a really good read on the topic.

u/lnfinity · 3 pointsr/Bandnames
u/fartbarffart · 3 pointsr/vegan

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

Try
Buy

u/Kinsly · 3 pointsr/books

There is a book that goes against Pollan's views that I found interesting to read. The guy just brings up a few points throughout his book about why Pollan is right and wrong.

http://www.amazon.com/Eating-Animals-Jonathan-Safran-Foer/dp/0316069884

u/minnabruna · 3 pointsr/AnimalRights

I am downvoting you. Not because I'm a rabid vegetarian who hates meat eating and criticism, but because your statement is inaccurate. I do eat meat, but only that which is confirmed from sources where the animals are treated humanely (which in turns means less chemicals, hormones and antibiotics are in the meat, as less are needed to prevent the animal from dying). This is more expensive. It is a bit of an inconvenience (I can't buy it at the 24-hour Safeway). As a result, I eat less meat than I used to (a few times a week, but not every day).

however, it is so worth it. For my health but even more so, for the animals (and my conscience).

  • The standard egg chicken in the US spend its entire life in a space smaller than a piece of paper. It will never have enough space to stand and flap its wings. This causes them to peck each other in an attempt to get space, so in order to prevent that they are "beaked," which means cutting off their beaks with a hot knife. The males never make it that far. As they cannot lay eggs, they are killed while very young. Standard methods including grinding them up while still alive or simply throwing them away, also while still alive.

    The standard meat chicken is bred to grow fast and have a large breast. The end result is a chicken that is so top heavy and fast-growing that its weak legs and bones cannot support its weight for very long. Instead, they spend hours sitting. Have you ever been near a chicken farm? You can smell them from far, far away. That smell is the ammonia from their sh*t. They sit in it, getting burns on their legs from their own sh-t, until they are killed. Next time you are in a grocery store, check the cheap chicken - sometimes you can see the burn marks on the plucked ones. The air would suffocate the chickens themselves if powerful fans were not always running. They sometimes get agitated in this environment, so they are kept in near darkness to keep them calm. "Free range" chickens have a small door somewhere where they can theoretically go out. The majority of chickens will never even get close to that door, and there isn't enough room for most of them out there if they could.

    The slaughtering process is equally terrible, but others have done a better job than me describing it and I don't want this to become an essay, so please just click that link. Oh, and the same goes for Turkeys, only there they are bred so disproportionately that they cannot breed, so that is all done through a very fast and very rough insemination process.

    So what about beef? All beef (except veal, which is raised in boxes) is free range. They are too big too keep in sheds. They are, however, kept in feed lots. A feed lot is a place where the cow sh-t is everywhere. This leads to unhealthy meat and co disease. It is small, with too many cows (sometimes up to 100,000) to keep the group from being anything but covered in it. The cows don't like this, they like to be cleaner, to have some room to move, to graze. The latter doesn't matter though because they are fed corn (and hormones to grow even faster). The cows grow faster that way and have fattier meat. They also have serious gastro-intestinal problems as their systems are made for grass, not corn. They get very serious, painful gas and stomach problems that are treated by forcing tubes down their throats to release gas, all without pain killers of course. The corn diet also removes a lot of the cows' abilities to shed bacteria themselves, making our meat unsafer. If the cows were allowed to eat grass for one week before slaughter, they would lose 85% of the e coli in their systems. but they aren't, its cheaper that way.

    Slaughtering cows is also a real problem. By law they must be stunned first, but the rates at which they are killed are so fast, that frequent mistake occur and cows are skinned and butchered alive.

    Pork is even worse, if that's possible. Similar issues exist when it comes to slaughtering pigs. They are crowded in very tight conditions, with so much manure that it become a toxic environmental hazard instead of the fertilizer that is would be in lower concentrations. The pigs themselves almost all suffer from respiratory problems from living in their filth, as do 60% of workers who spend only part of their day in the sheds.

    As for the breeding sows, its worse again. "Modern breeding sows are treated like piglet making machines. Living a continuous cycle of impregnation and birth, the sows each have more than 20 piglets per year. After being impregnated, the sows are confined in small pens or metal gestation crates which are just 2 feet wide. At the end of their 4 month pregnancy, they are transferred to farrowing crates to give birth. The sows barely have room to stand up and lie down, and many suffer from sores on their shoulders. They are denied straw bedding and forced to stand and lie on hard floors. When asked about this, a pork industry representative wrote, "...straw is very expensive and there certainly would not be a supply of straw in the country to supply all the farrowing pens in the U.S." (source)

    In slaughterhouses for all animal types, undercover videos show frequent abuse beyond the process. There are some studies linking daily participation in slaughter to desensitization to pain in others, as well as coverage of the difficult conditions in which workers must operate, but this is an additional problem.

    That si a sleepy, hurt hand very abbreviated and oversimplified version. If you're intersted in learning more and makign an educated decision, {Eating Animals](http://www.amazon.com/Eating-Animals-Jonathan-Safran-Foer/dp/product-description/0316069884) is a good place to start. Well written, not too long or too preachy.

    It is immoral to knowingly participate in this, not spoiled.
u/lo_dolly_lolita · 3 pointsr/vegan

Welcome! I am so happy you made this decision!!!

If you're interested, do some reading up like Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals.

Browse blogs for recipes. My favorites are Oh She Glows and Post Punk Kitchen.

Enjoy the vegan life :D

u/booninvailable · 3 pointsr/makemychoice

What is your moral opposition to eating meat? I ask not in a defensive tone, because I too am a vegetarian (and I have been all my life). I think it should really just boil down to this: we pretty much know that animals are capable of feeling pain. This assumption is codified in laws regarding bestiality and animal cruelty. From a utilitarian perspective, disengaging from the meat-eating society allows you to engage in life in a way that more successfully limits the pain that living things experience on earth.

Another thing to consider is that the meat industry is one of the most environmentally unsound human endeavors ever conceived. The economic model for creating meat-based products is essentially "grow food, harvest that food, transport that food to the real food, have the real food eat the food we already grew, and then harvest the real food." Meat is needlessly expensive in a 21st century economy in which many people could be healthy with a vegetarian diet. This expense is far more than just in a monetary sense, it is a cost which resonates environmentally as well. Think about all the fuels used merely to transport grains or corn to the animals that will eat them. This kind of stuff adds up.

Someone else in these comments recommended that you should consult a nutritionist to see what kinds of things you would be lacking from giving up meat. I just want to let you know that everyone should consult nutritionists, and that people who don't eat meat really don't give up much. A common misconception about vegetarians is that they don't get enough protein. In reality, most meat-eaters are receiving an excess of protein (nothing harmful, but nothing necessary to their diet).

A final thought: I questioned my vegetarianism when I was about 15, as I had grown up with vegetarian parents and for a while it felt as if I was living under someone else's philosophy with no real thought of my own factoring in. I read Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals during this time and it reassured me that vegetarianism wasn't just right, it was right for me. Do some reading before you reach a decision. You want this to be something that's truly yours.

u/techn0scho0lbus · 3 pointsr/vegan
u/Luna_Sandwich · 3 pointsr/vegan

I've read a lot of interviews from butchers that seem like they have to really disconnect from the animal to do their job. In most cases they will hide the animals face before killing it because it's the only way to deal with the guilt of being a literal murderer.

(The book I'm mainly referring to is "Eating Animals" by Johnathan Saffron Foer, which is also coming out as a movie this summer)

u/jamman751 · 3 pointsr/AskReddit

For more information on the animal products industry and advertising, check out Jonathan Foer's Eating Animals.

I haven't eaten chicken since reading it.

u/black-tie · 3 pointsr/Design

On typography:

u/MikeOfTheBeast · 3 pointsr/graphic_design

Meggs History of Graphic Design is probably the go-to for that. It's not cheap, but it is a great resource for anyone trying to understand styles and why things are the way they are.

u/redmoss6 · 3 pointsr/Design

This seems to be a standard, and this is a great reference.

u/habitable_apples · 3 pointsr/graphic_design

Hi, I am in school for graphic design at the moment as well. For me, the most important thing was/is taking time outside of the classroom to just work on your own projects and discover things about your own approach for your work.

One thing that really worked for me was reading about the history of graphic design. I felt as though I not only picked up on how styles developed, but it also just taught me "how to look" at the world and the visual communication that is all around us.

The book that really fascinated me and helped me understand the impact of what we do as visual communicators was this Philip Meggs' History of Graphic Design: https://www.amazon.com/Meggs-History-Graphic-Design-Philip/dp/0470168730

I go back to this book all the time as I think it's one of the most useful tools I have gained after I started doing graphic design.


u/sprokolopolis · 3 pointsr/Design

Meggs' History of Graphic Design details the evolution of visual communication through the ages, starting with the birth of written language. An understanding and knowledge of the eras of graphic design and the forces/politics/people/movements that shaped it is a valuable asset. This makes a great reference book as well.

edit: typo

u/buibui · 3 pointsr/graphic_design

Meggs' History of Graphic Design
It has a very in-depth view of graphic design. It allows me to understand and reference different styles within my current designs.

u/dvaunr · 3 pointsr/architecture

For a first project, this looks really good. Others have said some of the stuff that I'm going to say, but there's a couple other comments I haven't seen others make.

First, learn how to export images. Every arch program I've used has the ability to do this and it makes things look much nicer than taking a picture of a screen, which leads me to...

Learn how to Google efficiently. If you don't know how to do something, think of what you're trying to do, take the keywords out of it ("I want to build a wall that is sloped outward in Google Sketchup" turns into "slope wall sketchup"). In high school, I ended up knowing the programs we used better than my teacher because of this. Now in college, I am one of 3 out of about 125 that everyone goes to for help with programs. About 50% of the stuff they ask I don't know, but I can Google it and find an answer in under a minute.

Now, for the design itself. It's important that every design decision you make, you ask "why?" If you cannot fully justify it, think of a couple alternatives, and choose the best option. Then at the very least your reason would be "I explored a few options and determined this was the best solution." Sure, some will be able to argue it, but you have a reason. Always try and push it though. For instance, why did you choose wood planks for part of your facade? Is it because it looks good or because you had a location in mind and it matches the style of that location?

Next, materiality on facades. My general rule of thumb I use is one main material, one accent material (larger amounts of glazing would count, simple windows like you have would not). When you start having more than that, it starts to look rather busy and can be distracting. But like in the last paragraph, try to have a reason for the material. Pick a location for the building, learn the style and material of the location, and design with that in mind.

Finally, it's never too early to start learning about how buildings are actually constructed. If you can, get access to books by Francis Ching. If they are available at your library, check them out. If not, they're relatively cheap ($20-$30 each iirc). Building Construction Illustrated, Architecture: Form, Space, and Order, and A Visual Dictionary of Architecture are three books I highly recommend to get started on. It will help you understand how buildings are actually put together (and provide tips like nominal construction so you aren't doing things like cutting a CMU in half so that it fits). I notice a few things (such as being able to see the outlines of your stairs from the outside) that you want to watch for so they don't show up. This can be solved by understanding where different elements stop, how they're connected to each other, etc.

So, like I said, this looks really good. Starting at 15 is awesome, I started when I was 16 and now I'm applying to some of the top grad schools in the US, so definitely keep at it! One last tip, if you haven't already, start sketching/drawing by hand. It's an invaluable skill to have and will help you immensely if you decide to study architecture. Even if it's drawing one object a day, just spend 10-15 minutes every day sketching things out. You'll be surprised how much you improve just from practice in even a month.

u/S-M-L-XL · 3 pointsr/architecture

Frank Ching's Form, Space, and Order

EDIT: Added a link

u/J_Drive · 3 pointsr/TrueReddit

I'm somewhat skeptical about the "sprawl was planned" argument suggested here. There are plenty of decentralized cities all around the world, most more economically robust than the U.S. style of grid-city every 30-50 miles you see throughout the midwest. Take a look at a map of Germany and you'll be hard-pressed to find a vacant 100 square km.

As a city grows it envelops other cities, and it's easy to support development that fills in the vacant land between urban centers. That's very different from an official "plan" to create robust suburban dispersal.

Ironic, now -- cities may be the only way to create a decent sustainable future for humanity. Suburbs take too much energy to sustain. Read any work by J.B. Jackson or Geography of Nowhere by Kunstler to get a better sense of suburban hell.

u/helgie · 3 pointsr/urbanplanning

The books mentioned so far are great ones to start with. The Geography of Nowhere is also a good primer for the amateur; Kunstler's style is provocative and interesting to read.

I've always found good planning histories to be pretty accessible as well (for those interested in the subjects). Here are some recommendations that aren't the "main offenders" people normally reference:

Bourgeois Utopias is an interesting history of "suburbia", and the various forms "suburban development" has taken throughout history.

Sprawl by Robert Bruegeman is a good "contrast" to a lot of books about planning. His essential premises are that sprawl isn't bad, that underlies our economic growth, and that people want it.

u/eriksrx · 3 pointsr/investing

Hah. It's complicated. I don't think there is such a list. If you build your list purely by data, let's say population or wealth, it doesn't work. Seattle, or San Francisco, which to me are T1 cities, have smaller populations than Houston, Texas, which to me is a T2 (despite being one of the biggest cities in the country).

To me, a Tier 1 city is typically one people outside of the country have heard of. New York. Boston. SF. LA. Seattle. Chicago. When I visited Paris and told people (a cab driver and a worker at a bakery) I was from New Orleans, I shit you not, they had never heard of it. I had to say, "Louis Armstrong? Jazz?" and that gave them sort of a light bulb...

A Tier 1 city has everything you expect. Density of population, residential and commercial spaces in close proximity. Insane traffic. Wealth. The aforementioned things to do. Tier 2 cities tend to be more spread out, like Houston or Atlanta (but, again, LA is insanely spread out so you can't judge cities by density, either), and they tend to have sleepier commercial activity (most stores or restaurants downtown shut down around 5-6 or are only open for lunch).

They tend to have some wealth but not crazy wealth. Charlotte, NC is flush with bank money (I think). Houston and Dallas with energy. Miami with tourism and probably drugs, I dunno. Someone mentioned Boise, I think Boise has been home to a tech scene for a long time but it hasn't ever put the city on much of a map. Oddly I was driving cross country and went past Boise and it looks absolutely miniscule, like a small town that's really proud of having a couple 50 story buildings in it. Not hating, just an example of a place having a bigger reputation than it should.

You might find this book helpful: The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs. I read this early on while hunting for a place to live because I wanted to really understand how to recognize a great city without having to visit many of them. I ended up traveling a lot anyway but her work is very insightful. She was instrumental in how Toronto evolved (she even had an impact on New York I believe) and I briefly lived in a neighborhood with her fingerprints all over it, that was essentially her model neighborhood. A perfect blend of medium density residential (some single family homes next to 20-30 unit apartment buildings a few blocks deep) astride a commercial corridor for groceries and entertainment -- the neighborhood is called "The Annex", check it out on Google Street view here. The neighborhood has a mix of students, professors, bankers, artists, etc. Or, it had -- I'm sure it is gentrified like crazy by now.

A Tier 1 city is also a city that is insanely expensive to live in. In San Francisco I rented a 330 sq. ft. apartment in a truly awful neighborhood for $1650/month five years ago. That was a great price back then...in New Orleans I had a 1300 sq. ft. house and was paying the equivalent of $800/month in mortgage. I paid the place off just before I moved away from there, something I never thought I'd be able to do in my lifetime. It is something I will never likely be able to do in a Tier 1 city.

So...probably more of an answer than you wanted or expected, and probably not a very helpful one. My suggestion is to think about what is important to you and find a place that has that. Do you love the outdoors? Denver/Boulder, Portland OR, Seattle, etc. are great cities with that. Do you want to spend tons of time at a beach? San Diego is pretty affordable (for California) and you get that. Do you like hiking and camping? Plenty of places to do that in texas. Find a subreddit here and ask the locals :)

u/kx2w · 3 pointsr/history

Not OP but you should totally read Robert Caro's The Power Broker. It's a ~1,500 page tome but it's a fantastic breakdown of the history of Moses specifically, and Jacobs as well.

Then follow it up with Jacobs' Death and Life of Great American Cities for the counter argument. After that you can decide if you want to get into City Planning as a career. Lots of politics unfortunately...

u/ruindd · 3 pointsr/SaltLakeCity

No, they all have much smaller block sizes and narrower streets. Even though NYC's are fairly long in one dimension, there's s fair number of avenues in NYC that cut their blocks in half, much like the mid block streets I mentioned in SLC.

There's a few interesting books that talk about how the layout of streets affect the development of a city. Green Metropolis specifically talks about NYC and The Death and Life of Great American Cities talks generally about city planning.

u/sweetjane06 · 3 pointsr/HomeImprovement

Home Maintenance For Dummies https://www.amazon.com/dp/047043063X/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_LcfGub1W6ZA4A

Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual: Completely Revised and Updated https://www.amazon.com/dp/0762105798/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_3efGub0KSG133

u/sowie_buddy · 3 pointsr/DIY

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Do-It-Yourself-Manual-Completely-Revised/dp/0762105798/ref=pd_sim_b_1
A book like this is a great starting point. it will give you a good idea of what you would be getting into before you start a project. I would suggest a book like this then if you decided you wanted tile a bathroom get book specific for laying tile, then look at videos on you tube and try and learn as much as you can. this next part is important, just go for it. decide what you want to do and do it. best way to learn things is to actually do them.

u/Bonhomous_Bosch · 3 pointsr/suggestmeabook

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson goes into the historical and cultural origins of everyday household things we completely take for granted. Its a fascinating dive into the outrageous and often bloody history of stuff in your house.

u/GodoftheStorms · 3 pointsr/television

It's not a TV show, but Bill Bryson's book At Home: A Short History of Private Life is a good read on this topic. It's a history of all the rooms in a house, including many of the items in it. It's exhaustive and entertaining.

u/behemuthm · 3 pointsr/AskMenOver30

At Home by Bill Bryson. It's about the history of domestic living. He moved into an old Rectory and found the original floorplans. The book is broken up into rooms of that Rectory and discusses the history of the living room, bedroom, kitchen, etc.

Fun fact I remember from that book: "Room and board" means "a room with meals" because people used to use wooden boards on their laps as food trays.

I currently have 7 books on my nightstand in various stages of being bookmarked.

u/Joessandwich · 3 pointsr/science

If this interests you, try reading "At Home: A Short History of the Private Life" by Bill Bryson. It's full of info like this and is fascinating!

http://www.amazon.com/At-Home-Short-History-Private/dp/0767919394

u/kingrobotiv · 3 pointsr/badhistory

While we're at it, you know what? Fuck Bill Bryson for telling me the history of chairs.

/s

u/sheeponfire · 3 pointsr/todayilearned

I think you would really like this book. The author explains how the design of cities around cars takes priority and causes numerous problems. This forces us to sacrifice our needs for cities that accommodate cars and not our social needs. There is also an increase in traffic deaths and accidents because we have bigger streets and faster traffic which causes people to go into autopilot mode and not focus on surroundings.

https://www.amazon.com/Walkable-City-Downtown-Save-America/dp/0865477728

u/ieatcrackrocks · 3 pointsr/Carpentry
u/fithrowawayhey · 3 pointsr/architecture

Francis D. K. Ching books would be a place to start.

D.K. Ching Books

I would suggest: Building Construction Illustrated and Architecture: Form, Space, and Order

Then maybe some more of his books as you are interested.

There is also a series of HomeDepot books: Plumbing 1-2-3 Wiring 1-2-3 etc that have lots of basic info: 1-2-3 Series

Feel free to ask if you are looking for anything more specific.

u/HadleyRay · 3 pointsr/web_design

Personally, I liked Learning Web Design 4th ed.. It gives you a nice overview of everything you're going to work with on the front-end.

Duckett's book is good and easy to read, but as far as learning, it didn't do it for me--you may be different.

You would also be well-served to learn some design theory. Don't Make Me Think is probably the penultimate in this area. Design for Hackers is also very good.

Learning jQuery is also a must. Code School has a great jQuery course.

Like /u/ijurachi said, a scripting language like PHP or Ruby on Rails would be a next step after that.

u/xiongchiamiov · 3 pointsr/webdev

I'm almost finished with the book, and boy, it's great.

While we're making book suggestions, I also highly highly recommend picking up a copy of Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think. It's important to remember, when delving into design, that it's not just about making things pretty - you need to make them functional, too.

u/lotus2471 · 3 pointsr/Luthier

Well, if it's 100% tung oil then you could just put a couple of coats on and then let it dry. If it's Tung Oil Finish, which is pretty much anything that doesn't say 100% tung oil, then it also has varnish in it and you'll want to wait overnight, maybe sand with some 400 to get out any dust nibs or bubbles, then recoat and wait and see if you like it the next day.

Just make sure you let that stuff dry completely before you topcoat it with anything. Your shellac would actually make a good topcoat and you can really shine the hell out of it if you like that look, although it will add a little bit of color. It's nice, though, because if it gets nicked up you can just add a new coat of shellac and it'll completely reamalgamate into the finish and look new.

You can do that with some other topcoats, too, but any of the urethane stuff, water based or not, is going to build in layers and so it's harder to repair. If you have a good paint shop anywhere near you, or if you own a compressor and sprayer, you might also try lacquer. You can get spray cans of lacquer at good paint stores and it works pretty well and is still more repairable later than urethanes.

Just make sure your oil coats are totally dry before you topcoat. Get your nose down in that thing and really try to sniff the fibers out of it and make sure you don't smell any more of the finish anymore!

If you have some time before you do it and want to really investigate some options, check out this book by Bob Flexner (no, I'm not him pimping my book!).

Really great book that is very, very comprehensive and easy to follow on different types of finishes, the pros and cons of each, application techniques, surface prep, etc. I use this book constantly, as evidenced by the bent up, finish-stained pages that sometimes stick together now. Any of the books by Jeff Jewitt are also really good for finish types and techniques, but the Flexner one is a great go-to for just about anything. If you live anywhere near a Woodcraft or Rockler or other woodworking store then they probably stock it.

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text. Just finish your sample piece the way you think you want to finish the guitar first and then you'll know exactly what you're getting and what issues to expect.

u/SeanMWalker · 3 pointsr/woodworking

I am currently reading this book and am loving it so far.

Understanding Wood Finishing - Bob Flexner

I also found a pretty sweet source for furniture related books on amazon as well. Search this persons used books. I ordered about 6 books from them the other night.

u/dannisbet · 3 pointsr/graphic_design

Without seeing your work, one common thing about design is that we're always looking to create a flow and hierarchy of information so that the viewer can easily figure out what to do next, or pick out the information they need to move on to their next task (whatever that is).

It goes above aesthetics because we need design to do some work.

One of the best ways to help us organize all of that is by using grid systems. You'll find plenty of books on Amazon. Grid Systems in Graphic Design is one of the gold-standards, but it can be a bit pricy if you're still in school. I have Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Design on my bookshelf and it got the job done while I was learning about grids. It's a bit more budget-friendly as well.

u/pixelgarbage · 3 pointsr/graphic_design
  1. Illustrator is a very useful tool, it would serve you well to know how to use it. Illustrator also uses a very similar skill set to other applications you will end up using like indesign for example.

  2. No not at all, I think people love to complain no matter what industry they are in. However it is very competitive, there are plenty of very very successful designers out there and lots of really unsuccessful ones. No where is it more immediately obvious how "good" or "bad" you are at something than with a visual portfolio, people can see at a glance exactly how competent you are, that's pretty intimidating. For instance you might be able to escape notice as a mediocre insurance claims adjuster for much longer than a mediocre designer. If you can find a handful of solid clients and build good relationships with them it can go a very long way to having a long and comfortable career.

  3. Pay varies dramatically and theres a reason that very few people can give you a straight answer, your dealing with at least 3 variables at any given time if not more. What you are worth, what your client is worth and what the client is asking you to do. So for instance if your doing a multi million dollar marketing campaign and rebranding of a huge corporation while sitting in your manhattan office expect to be paid a little differently than if you are doing the CD cover for your friends band (that they recorded in garageband), the skill set, stakes and experience are dramatically different in those scenarios.

    Graphic design is everywhere and at all levels, expect to be paid accordingly. Understand too that $1000 for a logo is completely relative and doesn't by any means reflect the work that goes into it. You may have a someone who whips something together in a few minutes or have a team of designers slaving away iterating on an identity for weeks to make sure it's perfect, to make sure it becomes a household/highly recognizable piece of branding.

  4. One of the toughest and most technically challenging things I feel like you will have to deal with is typography. Having a good understanding of how to wield it's awesome power can go a very very long way. I think as far as learning your tools goes, for me at least the internet has been a far more valuable resource than any book, if you need a problem solved google can do that pretty quickly, theres also a ton of good tutorials or articles on design process out there, I have yet to see any books that come close.
    Now on the typography I can make a few suggestions, some of these are pretty dry and not so flashy but have very solid fundamentals in them. If you go to art school (and I highly suggest you do if you can afford it, it can be a phenomenal experience) then these are the kind of books you will be reading in the first year or two.

    Typographic Systems of Design ~Kim Elam

    Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type ~Kim Elam

    Thinking with Type ~Ellen Lupton

    Elements of Typography ~Robert Bringhurst

  5. I started doing some design work and drawing in high school. Both my parents are designers so I'm sure that helped, from there I went and got a BFA in illustration. While my first love is drawing and most of my work is illustration I still end up doing lot's of design work because it is (in my experience at least) very frequently in demand.

    Hope that was helpful and I'm sure lots of other people have had very different experiences and will share their stories and opinions. It's a very diverse field.
u/cruzweb · 3 pointsr/pics
u/ngroot · 3 pointsr/chicago

This may not be a bad thing. I haven't read The High Cost Of Free Parking, but I've certainly seen some compelling arguments for raising parking rates. You know, like "you might be able to find a parking spot".

u/nspectre · 3 pointsr/IAmA
u/Potatoroid · 3 pointsr/Austin

Here, read this book. Parking costs $$$ to provide the ~325 sq ft of space (~550 sq ft when including the driving space), especially opportunity costs (i.e. residences, businesses, etc that would actually be productive places). Mandating its inclusion and having it be of no cost to the user does soooo much to promote a cycle of automobile dependency, to the point where expecting free parking in a large city creates the very problem it was meant to solve.

u/swissnumberedaccount · 3 pointsr/vancouver

There's also the 800 page (text)book by Shoup. Which is a decent read. It does get a bit repetitive after a while. https://www.amazon.ca/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X

u/AsSubtleAsABrick · 3 pointsr/jerseycity

The underlying premise is that free/cheap parking is bad. It causes inefficiencies in the whole system. The article indirectly references this book.

u/brendax · 3 pointsr/vancouver

https://www.amazon.ca/High-Cost-Free-Parking/dp/193236496X

this is considered mandatory reading in planning circles.

u/slashedzer0 · 3 pointsr/Sacramento

The initial cost of building a garage may be cheaper, but the maintenance and opportunity cost is ungodly expensive for a parking garage. There're some really strong opinions on how bad parking is (see: High cost of free parking), but building structures that are generally really ugly, don't include any eye candy, and are single use is totally a waste of really really expensive real estate. Leave the parking garages in the suburbs and make parking so expensive that people actually take the train to the stadium.

In some places, they've decided to convert previous parking garages into usable spaces. Boston has one called the Garage and it's super cool.

u/pdblouin · 3 pointsr/Sudbury

Then again, during peak times Uber has pretty crazy surge pricing to balance supply and demand. Edit: People are always suprised at surge pricing, with very little sympathy as the app makes it annoyingly clear. And another example from New Year's.

Taxis being forced to have a fixed price means that can't happen, so demand outstrips supply. Some argue that it's more accessible for everyone when prices are fixed, but the flip side is that yeah, no one can get a cab at peak times, so it's not really more accessible.

I personally like the adaptable prices. Many transit systems also have peak prices so that people who aren't forced to use a service at peak time will have an incentive to offload their usage to when there is less stress on the system.

Where I lose most people is when I point out that peak pricing could do great things for parking and roads, too.

u/ohmywhatwoodwork · 3 pointsr/Detroit

Whatever knuckleheads started this petition should read this book:

http://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Parking-Updated-Edition/dp/193236496X

Free parking is BAD. End of story.

u/kryost · 3 pointsr/Sacramento

> Sacramentans don't have a huge history of dealing with limited parking

In general, parking, especially free parking, in cities is seen as a something that is extremely harmful to the City success. So a lot of us can get pretty defensive about it because of the way that too much parking hurt Sacramento's development. UCLA Professor Donald Shoup has a good book on the idea.

Along with improving non-auto infrastructure, we will have to adapt to non-auto modes. It will take time, but will make Sacramento a much more prosperous City, and a better place to live.



u/wbeyda · 3 pointsr/compsci

DirectX samples in the SDK have some great examples of HLSL shaders. You would know this if you have already installed and setup Visual Studio for DX projects. This book by Frank Luna is great as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-3D-Game-Programming-DirectX/dp/1936420228/

Knowing when to use the GPU as apposed to the CPU ? The short answer is always. Why? CPU computations are expensive and limited. The real questions you'll need to ask yourself is when do I write a pixel, vertex or fragment shader? And that is situation specific and can be pipeline specific. Something you will spend a lot of time regressing on. My advice is don't get into DX or opengl programming first. Spend some time in an engine and see how they do things first. My suggestion is to use Unity and write some shaders yourself. Shader language is funny and hard to debug so pick up a copy of a CG language book and learn from there. Spend a lot of time in Maya and Photoshop seeing how different graphical acheivements have already been done. Then try to mimic them before diving into the algorithm. Understanding shaders is basically the same thing. Final piece of advice. If you can work in a higher level language than C++ do it. No sense worrying about pointers when you can just use something like C# Java or even get away from types and just use something like javascript or python.

u/famastefano · 3 pointsr/cpp_questions
  • Game Engine Book for the high level design and to learn how things should interact
  • Math related to vectors, matrices, geometry and trigonometry related to 2D
  • DirectX 11 or OpenGL if you want to do it from scratch, SDL is still a good choice. Absolutely NOT DirectX 12 or Vulkan as they are too low level for a beginner.
  • You might want to read about multithreading, the theory is relatively simple, the practice is not. for the theory look only the Concurrency part.
u/syncr23 · 2 pointsr/web_design

Design for Hackers is pretty great. Again, light on specific tools but focuses on core fundamentals.

u/cawil · 2 pointsr/web_design

Something like Design for Hackers seems right up your alley. It's written specifically for people who want to make their projects look good but don't need to become full-on designers.

u/hammerjacked · 2 pointsr/webdev

Check out the book "Design for Hackers" by David Kadavy. The author teaches the principles of design in a way that is easy for anyone to understand.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1119998956

u/eyesonlybob · 2 pointsr/woodworking

Oil varnish is more durable than shellac. Shellac is more traditional and easier to repair.

I have used shellac as a sort of sanding sealer before moving on to oil varnish for film building finishes. A thin shellac sealer drys very fast allowing you to sand and move on faster. Oil varnish will take quite a bit longer to dry.

I usually make my own wiping oil varnish using various amounts of mineral spirits, linseed oil, and polyurethane.

If you're interested in diving into the vast world of wood finishing, I would recommend Bob Flexner's book Understanding Wood Finishing. It's very comprehensive.

u/lovesthewood · 2 pointsr/woodworking

"Tung oil cures very slowly ... you need to wait several days between coats". Source: http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Wood-Finishing-Edition-Woodworker/dp/1565235487

If it truly was 100% tung oil, then it was the "polymerized" kind, where it has been heated in an oxygen-free environment to cause crosslinking. This causes it to cure faster when exposed to oxygen.

u/Logan_Chicago · 2 pointsr/woodworking

Ah, no worries. The bible for this sort of thing is Understanding Wood Finishing. Fantastic book.

u/sektabox · 2 pointsr/woodworking

You achieve it by hard work supported with decent experience.

You can start with the basics here.

u/Skorro · 2 pointsr/woodworking

Also if you are interested in learning what each type of finish does and how it works, the best book you could buy is Understanding Wood Finishing.

Bob Flexner is amazing, he writes pretty much all the articles on finishing for Popular Woodworking. This book is probably the most enlightening woodworking book I have read. Prior to reading it I always found finishing to be a bit of mystery and definitely intimidating, not anymore.

u/yeahyeahyeahyeahoh · 2 pointsr/woodworking

I'd suggest reading a book on finishes. I just read a book that was fantastic --really upped my game. There is quite a bit to learn, but you'll be happy you did.

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Wood-Finishing-American-Woodworker/dp/1565235487/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374796630&sr=1-4&keywords=stain+finish

u/arbitrarycolors · 2 pointsr/Design

I've found all of these books to be helpful. I think you mainly would find the Grid Systems book useful.

Grid Systems by Kimberly Elam is a pretty good reference for using grids and better understanding composition. It has alot of examples of works that are accompanied by transparent pages that have grids to lay over them.

Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton helped with just understanding typography better.

Designing Type by Karen Cheng is good for understanding the intricacies of type and the differences between different typefaces by using grids.

u/mcplaid · 2 pointsr/design_critiques

thanks for posting. I think you have a great attitude, and honestly, attitude counts for more than you think.

I'll not critique the website, but, knowing you're new to the fundamentals, try to share some more general thoughts.

  1. do more. I think you're starting this already with some of your sketches for mini cooper. but always, always, do more. 50 iterations, 100 iterations. Keep pushing beyond the obvious, and use sketching as the tool to do that. I read an old design book, from the 70s, that said "only one solution is the symptom of an inflexible and untrained mind." /r/52weeksofdesign

  2. Time to get up on the basics. That means the basics of drawing (if you so please). It's not a requirement as a designer (I'm a piss poor artist), but it definitely helps sometimes. http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Right-Side-Brain-Definitive/dp/1585429201/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419898682&sr=8-1&keywords=right+hand+drawing

    What sketching is important for is flexing ideas and testing compositions before going to the computer.

  3. Learn the basics of typography:
    http://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Graphic-Design-Communication-Courses/dp/0321934288/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419898490&sr=1-1&keywords=stop+stealing+sheep

    http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Version-Anniversary/dp/0881792128/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419898879&sr=1-1&keywords=robert+bringhurst

    http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419898800&sr=1-2&keywords=typography

  4. Grids
    http://www.amazon.com/Grid-Systems-Principles-Organizing-Design/dp/1568984650/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419898762&sr=1-1&keywords=kimberly+elan

    http://www.amazon.com/Systems-Graphic-Systeme-Visuele-Gestaltung/dp/3721201450/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419898837&sr=8-1&keywords=grid+systems

  5. Photography (if you like)
    http://www.amazon.com/Black-White-Photography-Manual-Revised/dp/0316373052/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1419898921&sr=8-2&keywords=black+and+white+photography

    and

  6. remember that this is detail work. So things like spelling errors in this post, and on your website, should be resolved.

    Above and beyond the basics, I see your passion is impacting the world through design. So the question becomes HOW can graphic design impact the world, and does it at all? and what can you make or do directly? I think above all, a designer is an entrepreneur these days. Especially with that main driving passion.
u/jeff303 · 2 pointsr/baltimore

The argument he's making actually isn't against city-owned garages (even though that's the point he desperately wants to make given that it's The Atlantic). The argument is actually against parking that is "too cheap," which is a perfectly valid and not-at-all novel argument to pose. See this book for example.

The city could still raise prices and retain ownership.

u/_Chemistry_ · 2 pointsr/Hoboken

You might be interested to see how San Francisco addressed street parking. They installed meters that would allow for variable pricing based upon supply and demand. I think this could work in Hoboken, especially along Washington Street, to encourage more short-term parking for the street and encourage people to use garages for long term parking.

Also there's a good book called "The High Cost of Free Parking" by Donald Shoup. There's an excerpt here that people can read.

u/Empact · 2 pointsr/politics

There are 2 parts to the automobile society problem. One of them is building an alternative, which I'm glad to see Obama is working towards. The other side of this is the substantial subsidies the federal government has been giving car travel for decades. Train travel wasn't killed only by Detroit, it was killed also by a free interstate highway system.

I recently gave a talk (slides) about these car subsidies: parking mandates and infrastructure costs which far exceed the user fees paid via the gas tax. As transportation is extremely cost sensitive (as Donald Shoup has shown, for example with his parking cash-out studies), these subsidies make the difference between a sea of suburbs and a denser network of European-style villages & cities.

So don't get lost only in building rail networks, as correcting perverse subsidies is just as important as building an alternative.

u/EvanHarper · 2 pointsr/toronto

People should have to pay market prices for parking, whether they're parking a food truck there or not. (By the way, that would mean drastically less parking, as parking is heavily subsidized.)

u/Smiziley · 2 pointsr/WTF

San Francisco, his study area is actually implementing his suggestions coming April 21. You should attempt to read his book if you're interested in parking as a concept of unintentionally bad planning.

u/verticalnoise · 2 pointsr/writing

I too thought about that a while ago and found out there's something similar on the market.

u/mynickname86 · 2 pointsr/funny

I don't know if I'm missing a joke, but it's a thing.

u/pooey_mcpooface · 2 pointsr/seinfeld

there is one on Amazon but doesn't look as good as Kramer's. No legs or anything.

u/gotham77 · 2 pointsr/seinfeld
u/OverTheFalls10 · 2 pointsr/sandiego

The economics of free street parking is quite interesting. This issue is much more impactful on the health of our cities than first glance may suggest. If you're really into it, here are 800 pages to feast on.

http://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X

u/BigVideoGamer69 · 2 pointsr/pittsburgh

Why would you expect the city to waste space that could be put to a better use on parking for you? That would be a waste of valuable space, which is in short supply in such a geographically small downtown area.
 
This book is specifically about free parking, but addresses how wasteful in general parking is.
https://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X
 
Long story short, expecting a city that you don't even pay taxes towards to provide something for you is an incredibly entitled mindset. Maybe cities aren't for you.
 
e: Actually, Houston just might be the city for you:
http://i1117.photobucket.com/albums/k591/birdboy1/parking-houston.jpg

u/smckenzie23 · 2 pointsr/vancouver

And with any thought at all it should be something that voters are strongly against. It turns out there is a high cost to free parking. Man I hope that idiot doesn't get in.

u/howardson1 · 2 pointsr/Anarcho_Capitalism

We should focus on how the government subsidizes carbon consumption though [ parkinglot mandates] (http://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413929706&sr=1-1&keywords=the+high+cost+of+free+parking) and forces people to depend on cars through zoning laws that segregate businesses from apartments. High density living is illegal is most of america. [The government also subsidizes environmentally destructive activity] (http://www.amazon.com/Perverse-Subsidies-Dollars-Undercut-Environment/dp/1559638354/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413929785&sr=1-1&keywords=perverse+subsidies)

u/rypalmer · 2 pointsr/teslamotors

This is not a new problem to solve.

https://www.amazon.ca/High-Cost-Free-Parking/dp/193236496X

I'd like to see Tesla move to a dynamic pricing model that takes occupancy into consideration in real time. The pricing model should optimize for a certain vacancy of stalls at any time, say 10-20%.

Using pricing projections, you could set your trip planner to optimize on shortest trip time or lowest cost.

u/trebuday · 2 pointsr/SantaBarbara

Someone needs to read "The High Cost of Free Parking".

u/ArchEast · 2 pointsr/Atlanta

Minor correction: the book's title is The High Cost of Free Parking.

Amazon link

u/Mesonoptic · 2 pointsr/FortWorth

TANSTAAFL, y'all. Oodles of parking costs oodles of money, and it's nothing short of absolutely fair and dandy that parking co$t$ there - either pay up directly, or visit an approved merchant (indirect payment).

u/Lol-I-Wear-Hats · 2 pointsr/bayarea

Donald Shoup has calculated that mandatory parking might be America's single most expensive social program

u/OstapBenderBey · 2 pointsr/sydney

This is the best book - though American (and things are far worse there - particularly the 'free' part in the title), many of the issues still apply

https://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X

u/pillbinge · 2 pointsr/boston

They're not. People's incomes might not have kept up, but the actual cost of free parking (and yes, read the book) is too much.

u/lingual_panda · 2 pointsr/urbanplanning

Have you read Donald Shoup's essays on parking? He also has a book out but I won't read it until there's a kindle version.

u/avo_cado · 2 pointsr/philadelphia
u/clarient · 2 pointsr/bicycling

Check out The High Cost of Free Parking if you feel like a serious read that basically supports everything you already think about cars and parking.

u/inequity · 2 pointsr/JobFair

There is always a lot of ways to get involved. Nobody can hold you back from being successful but yourself. If you have the drive to get involved, you can succeed, regardless of your 'inate programming intelligence'.

Check out gamedev.stackexchange.com. Can you answer the questions people have there? If not, figure out why! Read the answers they get, and learn that stuff. Someday, you'll be able to answer that for somebody else.

Try making some games, too. Start with simple stuff, in whatever language you know (but I always like to recommend C++). Then work your way up. Hangman, Pong, Asteroids, Pacman, Tetris. You can write all of these by yourself, and you can expand on them to make them cool. I wrote a bot that plays Bejeweled 3 that I still use on my resume, because it's cool!

Want to learn some graphics stuff? Check out this opengl tutorial. Need to understand these topics better? Buy some books! I'd recommend Pracitcal Linear Algebra: A Geometry Toolbox, and Frank Luna's DirectX books.

I'd type more but I'm sort of tired. Please feel free to send me a PM if you're interested in more references that could be helpful to you.

u/foolusion · 2 pointsr/learnprogramming

You might wanna check out Frank Luna's "Introduction to 3D Game Programming with Directx #" books. The older ones are probably cheap used. The most recent one was released today it seems. amazon link

u/CodyDuncan1260 · 2 pointsr/gamedev

Game Engine:

Game Engine Architecture by Jason Gregory, best you can get.

Game Coding Complete by Mike McShaffry. The book goes over the whole of making a game from start to finish, so it's a great way to learn the interaction the engine has with the gameplay code. Though, I admit I also am not a particular fan of his coding style, but have found ways around it. The boost library adds some complexity that makes the code more terse. The 4th edition made a point of not using it after many met with some difficulty with it in the 3rd edition. The book also uses DXUT to abstract the DirectX functionality necessary to render things on screen. Although that is one approach, I found that getting DXUT set up properly can be somewhat of a pain, and the abstraction hides really interesting details about the whole task of 3D rendering. You have a strong background in graphics, so you will probably be better served by more direct access to the DirectX API calls. This leads into my suggestion for Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX10 (or DirectX11).



C++:

C++ Pocket Reference by Kyle Loudon
I remember reading that it takes years if not decades to become a master at C++. You have a lot of C++ experience, so you might be better served by a small reference book than a large textbook. I like having this around to reference the features that I use less often. Example:

namespace
{
//code here
}

is an unnamed namespace, which is a preferred method for declaring functions or variables with file scope. You don't see this too often in sample textbook code, but it will crop up from time to time in samples from other programmers on the web. It's $10 or so, and I find it faster and handier than standard online documentation.



Math:

You have a solid graphics background, but just in case you need good references for math:
3D Math Primer
Mathematics for 3D Game Programming

Also, really advanced lighting techniques stretch into the field of Multivariate Calculus. Calculus: Early Transcendentals Chapters >= 11 fall in that field.



Rendering:

Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX10 by Frank. D. Luna.
You should probably get the DirectX11 version when it is available, not because it's newer, not because DirectX10 is obsolete (it's not yet), but because the new DirectX11 book has a chapter on animation. The directX 10 book sorely lacks it. But your solid graphics background may make this obsolete for you.

3D Game Engine Architecture (with Wild Magic) by David H. Eberly is a good book with a lot of parallels to Game Engine Architecture, but focuses much more on the 3D rendering portion of the engine, so you get a better depth of knowledge for rendering in the context of a game engine. I haven't had a chance to read much of this one, so I can't be sure of how useful it is just yet. I also haven't had the pleasure of obtaining its sister book 3D Game Engine Design.

Given your strong graphics background, you will probably want to go past the basics and get to the really nifty stuff. Real-Time Rendering, Third Edition by Tomas Akenine-Moller, Eric Haines, Naty Hoffman is a good book of the more advanced techniques, so you might look there for material to push your graphics knowledge boundaries.



Software Engineering:

I don't have a good book to suggest for this topic, so hopefully another redditor will follow up on this.

If you haven't already, be sure to read about software engineering. It teaches you how to design a process for development, the stages involved, effective methodologies for making and tracking progress, and all sorts of information on things that make programming and software development easier. Not all of it will be useful if you are a one man team, because software engineering is a discipline created around teams, but much of it still applies and will help you stay on track, know when you've been derailed, and help you make decisions that get you back on. Also, patterns. Patterns are great.

Note: I would not suggest Software Engineering for Game Developers. It's an ok book, but I've seen better, the structure doesn't seem to flow well (for me at least), and it seems to be missing some important topics, like user stories, Rational Unified Process, or Feature-Driven Development (I think Mojang does this, but I don't know for sure). Maybe those topics aren't very important for game development directly, but I've always found user stories to be useful.

Software Engineering in general will prove to be a useful field when you are developing your engine, and even more so if you have a team. Take a look at This article to get small taste of what Software Engineering is about.


Why so many books?
Game Engines are a collection of different systems and subsystems used in making games. Each system has its own background, perspective, concepts, and can be referred to from multiple angles. I like Game Engine Architecture's structure for showing an engine as a whole. Luna's DirectX10 book has a better Timer class. The DirectX book also has better explanations of the low-level rendering processes than Coding Complete or Engine Architecture. Engine Architecture and Game Coding Complete touch on Software Engineering, but not in great depth, which is important for team development. So I find that Game Coding Complete and Game Engine Architecture are your go to books, but in some cases only provide a surface layer understanding of some system, which isn't enough to implement your own engine on. The other books are listed here because I feel they provide a valuable supplement and more in depth explanations that will be useful when developing your engine.

tldr: What Valken and SpooderW said.

On the topic of XNA, anyone know a good XNA book? I have XNA Unleashed 3.0, but it's somewhat out of date to the new XNA 4.0. The best looking up-to-date one seems to be Learning XNA 4.0: Game Development for the PC, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone 7 . I have the 3.0 version of this book, and it's well done.

*****
Source: Doing an Independent Study in Game Engine Development. I asked this same question months ago, did my research, got most of the books listed here, and omitted ones that didn't have much usefulness. Thought I would share my research, hope you find it useful.

u/aivenhoe · 2 pointsr/GraphicsProgramming

I can give you a book recommendation. Although not the newest book around, I still think it explains very understandable probably most of the topics you are interested in. You can follow the books line or you can just look up things.

have fun

u/phatgreen · 2 pointsr/GraphicsProgramming

https://www.youtube.com/user/ChiliTomatoNoodle/playlists

That guys youtube channel has DirectX 11 C++ tutorials. He has a beginner series, intermediate, and advanced. He still adds to the advanced occasionally, like SSE explanations and so on.

His videos are long, you really get to know him and his personality. His beginner videos teach you C++ too, he doesn't expect you to know anything going in. He swears fairly often, I thought it was funny back in high school when I watched these, but others might not.

These videos are where I started from in the very beginning, and I wouldn't be where I am programming wise if it weren't for Chilli. He has allowed me to educate myself on my own time, for free. After I had done the beginner and intermediate tutorials I went and read this.

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-3D-Game-Programming-DirectX/dp/1936420228

That will teach you the basics of 3D Programming.

http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Rendering-Computation-Direct3D-11/dp/1568817207

And that will teach you how to really understand the pipeline. Both books have their merits and both have very useful information for someone learning all this stuff. I'm currently making my own 3d game engine at the moment, so that's what understanding the information above can do for you. Takes time, though.

u/Sanctumed · 2 pointsr/gamedev

From what you wrote in your post, it seems that you are interested in the actual nitty gritty relating to graphics. For that, Game Engine Architecture is a much more suitable book compared to Game Coding Complete. However, if you are really interested in graphics and stuff like DirectX, I'd highly recommend getting a book like Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 11: https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-3D-Game-Programming-DirectX/dp/1936420228

I personally read the DirectX 12 book, but for newbies to graphics programming, DirectX 11 is much much easier to grasp. There are similar books for OpenGL, but imo you'd be better off learning DirectX 11 because it's a lot more modern.

u/satoriko · 2 pointsr/LandscapeArchitecture

There's a surprising amount of crossover between LA and psych. Here are some links:

A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander

The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces by William H Whyte (video)

Environmental Psychology

Travel to places that you like and journal/sketch about what you like, how it makes you feel to be in the space, take note of elements like lighting, seating, fountains/sculptures, and materials. Find out who designed the space and check out more of their work.

Call up a local LA firm that does similar work to the type you want to do, and ask for a tour of their office, shadow them in the field, or ask for an internship.

u/jfb3 · 2 pointsr/books
u/lexpython · 2 pointsr/architecture

Well, the kitchen is pretty far from the garage, and through a lot of doors and a tiny room. This makes carrying groceries inside suck.

and, as many others have mentioned, the dining room is too far from the kitchen to be functional. Does anybody actually USE a formal dining room anymore? I'd suggest a flex-space addendum to the living room where a formal table can be set in the event of guests, but is normally a nice part of the living room or a usable space between the kitchen & living area.

Overall, it seems messy and inelegant.

If you don't want to scrap the design completely, I would suggest clustering the bedroom/office on the left behind the garage, making the entry central next to the garage, and positioning the kitchen, dining & living areas on the right side. I also like to cluster water-walls for ease of plumbing.

The mudroom is a wonderful idea, but it needs to be big enough to set down groceries, remove shoes & coats, put them away. Also a great place for a laundry/dog sink.

I am not understanding the "dressing" room. Do people dress outside of their bedrooms?

Personally, I'd start over.

I love reading this book for refining ideas.

u/reasonableBeing · 2 pointsr/architecture

check out A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander. Great book for corralling up all the elements you'll want in a home. It's a collection of 'patterns' or elements that make Architecture work well for human life. A lot of great stuff that's often taken for granted, but very simple. And often cheap!

The nyTimes did a story on this fellow a while back- he's pioneered interior vertical garden walls. Very neat stuff.
http://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com You might find some inspiration there.

good luck!

u/SlappysRevenge · 2 pointsr/architecture

I'm coming from a game design perspective rather than architect, so take this with a grain of salt, but I've been told (numerous times) to check out the work Christopher Alexander, particularly A Pattern Language and The Timeless Way of Building.

I haven't read either one yet, but they are at the top of my "To Read" list.

u/ProblyAThrowawayAcct · 2 pointsr/skyrim

http://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Language-Buildings-Construction-Environmental/dp/0195019199

Get yourself a copy of this book and you'll be set to do it yourself.

u/tamupino · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

Yeah, the only books you generally run into in normal libraries are "case studies" which wont tell you shit about how to actually design something...although they are nice to look at.
I've spent all 5 years of my career building for the Government and Public sectors (Enormous military hospitals, International airport terminals etc) and sadly do not have much practical experience with single family residences. So, I cant give you any recommendations about how to build a house specifically, but these two books would give you an incredible crash course in architecture, design, and basic construction processes. Really, for a small project the Graphics Standards books tells you almost all of the "How" to put something together, although IMO it skims on the "Why".

Architectural Graphic Standards

101 Things I learned in Architecture School

Hope that helps some


u/Carrotsandstuff · 2 pointsr/architecture

101 things I learned In Architecture School. Handy tips for studio students, it will also help him experience different spaces because it teaches the principles behind their designs.

u/Caboomer · 2 pointsr/architecture

So it may be a little cliche and silly but 101 Things I learned in Architecture School happens just to have a few hilarious moments that any formal student of architecture would appreciate.

u/daffyflyer · 2 pointsr/engineering

The New Science of Strong Materials or Why You Don't Fall through the Floor
http://www.amazon.com/Science-Materials-through-Princeton-Library/dp/0691125481

Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down

http://www.amazon.com/Structures-Things-Dont-Fall-Down/dp/0306812835/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y

Great real world overview of lots of mechanical engineering concepts like stress/strain, how I beams work, how cracks form etc.
Not too theory/equation heavy, very well written. 1960s Era but still pretty relevant.

u/Dunphizzle · 2 pointsr/engineering

The Eurocode series.

Ah but really, I quite like this: Reinforced Concrete Design

This is supposed to be quite good:Dynamics of Structures: Theory and Applications to Earthquake Engineering

I used to love this book, but I wonder if there is an updated version for eurocodes, will have to check it out

And of course it always depends on your field of interest, for instance I particularly like this book: Theory of Shell Structures

Also, this is supposed to be a classic: Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down


I now apologise if you don't live or work in Europe.

u/hawtsprings · 2 pointsr/cycling

Not specific to bikes, but along with Bill Gates, I highly, highly recommend this book about materials science /architecture:

https://www.amazon.com/Structures-Things-Dont-Fall-Down/dp/0306812835

This teaches concepts such as elasticity (Hooke's law), toughness, ductility, etc. ... you will have a new appreciation for every "carbon fiber vs. aluminum vs. steel" argument on the 'net after you read it. My only regret is that there aren't other books like it. I read this and it changed my life for about a year; I wanted to become an engineer or bike builder.




u/never_comment · 2 pointsr/AskEngineers

Here you go: https://www.amazon.com/Structures-Things-Dont-Fall-Down/dp/0306812835
Amazing book for beginners or people with a decade of experience. I have read this several times now and still love it.

u/n0ble · 2 pointsr/EngineeringStudents

As a casual read, I'd suggest 'Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down' by J. E. Gordon. It's supposed to serve as a very basic introduction to what Structural Engineering is all about, and is written very well. I found it quite interesting.

u/Blueberryslurpypouch · 2 pointsr/vegan

I read Eating Animals about a month ago. Really awesome and eye opening, even after having been vegan for a while

u/lakedonkey · 2 pointsr/vegan

The only book I've read on the issue is Eating Animals, but I don't remember the ratio of facts vs storytelling.

I mostly read up on these issues online, on different animal rights sites. As long as they provide the sources to their claims, it doesn't have to be a (big) problem that the site has an agenda of its own. I think Vegan Outreach has some good info, and they have good advice regarding how to present the knowledge you have too. (How to be an effective animal advocate.)

As for the "humane meat" part, you might want to listen to someone like Gary Franscione to get some idea of what the philosophical arguments are: Do we have to find instances of suffering on "humane farms" to say that they are indeed not humane? Or is it sufficient to point that the animals are all eventually sent to slaughter? (Ie. isn't it immoral and inhumane to kill someone, ending their lives against their own will, regardless of how good their lives was up until that point?)

u/landoindisguise · 2 pointsr/answers

OK, so I want to preface this by saying that I'm not an expert. I'm also not a vegetarian. However, I did just this morning finish reading this book to see if it would change my view on meat, and it did. There are some flaws with it, but it was still enough that I'm going to try to avoid factory-farmed meat from now on.

>Do pigs at the slaughterhouse know what's going on?

So to answer your question...in THEORY, no, they don't. Most slaughterhouses have the live pigs outside and they get let in one by one through a non-transparent door, beyond which they are stunned and then killed.

In REALITY, however, it's not at all uncommon for this process to work imperfectly. The pigs are not always stunned effectively or killed quickly. Just this morning at the end of the book I was reading interviews with slaughterhouse workers and one talked about his time working as the guy who killed the pigs, and how many of them were conscious when he killed them, or in some cases mutilated and then killed them by doing things like ripping out an eye or cutting off their nose. At this point they're obviously inside a slaughterhouse and the smell of pig blood is all around, so yes some of them definitely do know what's up.

>Has there been any reports of sows somehow seeking to sacrifice themselves, being first in line, to save their young?

Heh...no, but not for the reason you think. Most factory-farmed animals have been very genetically fucked with, and in some cases they're literally not even capable of reproduction (this is true of most factory-farmed turkeys, i.e. 100% of the turkey you eat, for example). I think it's less true of pigs, but pigs - like most animals - are still slaughtered quite young (usually around 6 months) because that's the way it's most profitable. For that reason, the pigs we eat don't get to do things like "have offspring."

The offspring are produced by specific breeding sows, which spend most of their lives in gestation crates like this. These pigs do get to live a lot longer, but they only keep their "young" for around 20 days of nursing before the piglets are taken away and it's back to the gestation crate for the next artificial insemination and pregnancy.

So, no, there are no reports of sows cutting the line to try to save their young.

>whether or not I should think twice before having that delicious BBQ pork.

You absolutely should. That doesn't mean don't eat pork, as there ARE some places that do things more ethically, letting the pigs outside to walk around and stuff (for example). But they are few and far between, and they take work to find (and of course the meat costs more). If you're buying the grocery store stuff, there's pretty much a 100% chance that your meat was factory farmed, which means you're eating a sixth-month-old fattened up, genetically altered pig that's been pumped full of antibiotics to compensate for the fact that it has spent its entire life inside a giant, shit-covered warehouse. It almost certainly lived a short and fairly nightmarish life, and its death may or may not have been quick and painless, depending on how lucky it got at the slaughterhouse.

u/ThatSpencerGuy · 2 pointsr/changemyview

The internet is a very good place to go for people who are very worried about what other people believe. It's not so good at changing anyone's behavior, since you can't observe others' behavior through a computer. But you sure can tell people they are wrong and demand that they agree.

That means that the vegans you're encountering online aren't representative of all vegans. They're just the vegans who are very worried about what they and other people believe. By definition, that's not going to be a very humble subset of vegans.

Most vegans change other people's minds far away from the internet. They do it by simply purchasing, preparing, and eating vegan food, and when asked why they eat that way, explaining their position simply and without judgement.

> I also can't mention to anyone I know that I'm eating vegan because of the obvious social consequences.

I don't know if that's true. I don't think many people experience social consequences for their diet alone. Here's what I do if I don't want to talk about my reasons for being vegetarian, but someone asks me. I say, "Oh, you know--the usual reasons." If they press, I say, "Animal rights, environmental impact, that kind of thing." And I always go out of my way to explain that I "just ate less meat" for a while before becoming a full vegetarian. And also make sure I compliment others' omnivorous meals so people know I'm not judging anything as personal as their diet.

There's a wonderful book called Eating Animals whose author, I think, takes a very reasonable and humble approach to the ethics of eating meat.

u/trailermotel · 2 pointsr/vegan

Not OP, but I can tell you that all of those dishes are super easy to "veganify." Start buying different veggie burger patties, check out Beyond Meat products (they make burgers, ground beef, and chicken type meat currently - honestly I've been meat free for so long that it's all a little too meaty for me, but I wish the Beyond brand had been available when I first stopped eating meat). There are a ton of other veggie patties out there. Check out your nearest vegan restaurant if there are any around you. If you're a milk drinker, I honestly prefer plant-based milk, pea milk, oat milk, almond, flax, soy... all so good. When my husband first went vegan we went and bought a whole bunch of different plant-based kinds of milk to do a taste test b/c he's very picky about the creamer in his coffee. He ended up choosing the pea milk - it's got a good creamy feel to it in coffee. Chao Cheese is delicious (a lot of vegan cheeses aren't so great but that one is).

Easy snacks: almond butter and banana, or avocado and hummus sandwiches, soup and bread is easy, something about coconut oil on toast tastes EXACTLY like butter to me, but there are vegan butters available that mimic the real thing very well also... there's a lot of vegan junk food out there like chips, Oreos, cookies, and ice-cream too to get that fix. Ben and Jerry's dairy-free ice cream is unreal. I didn't even know it was vegan when I used to eat it as a vegetarian.

Vegan cooking blogs:

[Minimalist Baker] (https://minimalistbaker.com/) - she has a good shepherds pie.

[Hot for Food] (https://www.hotforfoodblog.com/welcome) has a lot of good comfort food

[Thug Kitchen] (https://www.thugkitchen.com/)

[Here's a list of the Top 50 vegan food blogs] (https://www.culinarynutrition.com/top-50-vegan-blogs/)

Reading ["Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer] (https://www.amazon.com/Eating-Animals-Jonathan-Safran-Foer/dp/0316069884) was really instrumental in helping me make the shift as well. Foer is a fiction author who went vegan irl and the book is autobiographical of his decision making, so it's very approachable and not guilt-trippy at all.

Welcome to the right side of history! Also, I didn't feel different at all going from meat-eater to vegetarian, when I went from vegetarian to vegan, however, I felt a world of difference in terms of improved mood and energy and getting to poop like three times a day ha.

And, like someone else said, you don't have to do it all at once. Maybe try cutting out one animal group at a time. If I had to do it over, I would start with dairy, then chicken, fish, pork, beef... Dairy is really just awful in terms of cruelty and health impact.

Okay now I'm rambling. Take care!

Edit: formatting wall of text.

u/KalopsianDystopia · 2 pointsr/vegan

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer might interest you. Almost seven years old now, but still interesting.

Maybe you would like something written by the animal rights philosopher Tom Regan. His Empty Cages are a great read, and he has written a very readable introduction to moral philosophy on ~150 pages: Animal Rights, Human Wrongs

u/opinionrabbit · 2 pointsr/vegetarian

Welcome and congrats on your decision!

Here are my tips on getting started:
There is a great plant-based diet you might be interested in, it's called "The Starch Solution by Dr. McDougall":
https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/shopping/books/starch-solution/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_7rrkG3xYk

1.1) Learning new recipes
It takes a few weeks to learn new recipes and get to know new products.
Also, there is quite a bit of misinformation in the area of nutrition.
It will take a while until you see "through the fog". Just hang in there :)
http://www.chooseveg.com/switchnditch (get their free guide on the homepage!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmnPM6QzDTw
https://www.youtube.com/user/thevegancorner
https://www.youtube.com/user/hotforfoodblog
veg restaurants: http://www.happycow.net

1.2) Doing your research (health, ethics, environment)
No worries, 3 documentaries and books and you are fine :)
http://www.forksoverknives.com/the-film/
http://www.cowspiracy.com/
http://www.nationearth.com/earthlings-1/ (graphic)
Watch these with your husband, if possible, so that he is part of your journey and understands the basics.

http://www.amazon.com/Eating-Animals-Jonathan-Safran-Foer/dp/0316069884
https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/shopping/books/starch-solution/
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Dogs-Pigs-Wear-Cows/dp/1573245054/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457183607&sr=1-1&keywords=why+we+love+dogs+eat+pigs+and+wear+cows
Also has a great TEDx talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0VrZPBskpg
(I am not affiliated with amazon, btw)

2) Really, no need to worry about protein
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/natural-health/vegan-sources-of-protein/
http://www.forksoverknives.com/slaying-protein-myth/
http://nutritionfacts.org/topics/protein/
You can enter your meals into http://www.cronometer.com just to be safe.

And finally some basic help on getting started:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2k4NHjAP84
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htf5eCgyt5Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o9uzH_vrXA

That will keep you busy for a month or two, but it will also get you over the hump :)
Let me know if you got any questions or need help.
Good luck!

u/bethyweasley · 2 pointsr/vegan

the book is great as well! you might check out his other book eating animals which explains why he doesnt.

u/ewwquote · 2 pointsr/vegan

There's an excellent chapter in Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals that's all about fish and other seafood.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0316069884/

u/josephnicklo · 2 pointsr/graphic_design

Uncategorized:

Thoughts On Design: Paul Rand


Saul Bass: A Life in Film and Design

How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul

100 Ideas that Changed Graphic Design

Paul Rand

Paul Rand: Conversations with Students

Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design

Bauhaus

The Vignelli Canon

Vignelli From A to Z

Dieter Rams: As Little Design as Possible

It's Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be: The World's Best Selling Book

Damn Good Advice (For People with Talent!)

Josef Muller-Brockmann: Pioneer of Swiss Graphic Design

Popular Lies About Graphic Design

100 Ideas that Changed Art

100 Diagrams That Changed the World

Basics Design 08: Design Thinking

Swiss Graphic Design: The Origins and Growth of an International Style, 1920-1965

Lella and Massimo Vignelli (Design is One)

The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice

History of the Poster

How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer

The Design of Dissent: Socially and Politically Driven Graphics

George Lois: On His Creation of the Big Idea

Milton Glaser: Graphic Design

Sagmeister: Made You Look

Victore or, Who Died and Made You Boss?

Things I have learned in my life so far

Covering the '60s: George Lois, the Esquire Era

Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite

Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

[Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration]
(http://www.amazon.com/dp/0812993012/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=VEJ64Y4T0U6J&coliid=I1WMMNNLTRBQ9G)

Graphic Design Thinking (Design Briefs)

I Used to Be a Design Student: 50 Graphic Designers Then and Now

The Form of the Book: Essays on the Morality of Good Design

Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills

Information Graphics: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference

Semiology of Graphics: Diagrams, Networks, Maps

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

Envisioning Information

The elements of dynamic symmetry

The elements of content strategy

Corporate Diversity: Swiss graphic design and advertising

Book Design: a comprehensive guide

Meggs' History of Graphic Design

u/Jardun · 2 pointsr/Design

I seem to get asked this a lot, but here is my list, posted here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/1uq58s/good_graphic_design_books_for_a_beginner/ceklj3y



> These are all books that I absolutly love, and bought for either personal use or to accompany different courses while I was getting my BFA in GD. I have seen some of them both are brick and mortar book stores, and college book stores. If you get a chance to see them in person before buying, leaf through them to get a feel.
>
> Megg's History of Graphic Design, absolutely essential to understanding where graphic design comes from historically. IMO the best GD history book on the market, at least the most encompassing. One of my favorites, was very helpful writing different papers and researching historical styles.
>
>
Graphic Design School. Another great book, focuses more on design process and stuff like that. This one more walks you though being a designer. Gives tutorials on different things too, which is useful.
>
> Graphic Design Referenced is a really great book that is a bit of a hybrid. This book describes a lot of design terms, styles, and general knowledge while referring to historical and modern examples.
>
> Those three for me are really essential books for new graphic designers, I learned more from those three than I can express. Below are a few more books I really like, but might be a bit more advanced than someone just getting started might want.
>
>
Another book I have used a lot, and almost included with those three is above. Thinking with Type. Really great intro into typography.
>
> More advanced even.
>
> How to be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul
>
>
A Graphic Design Student's Guide to Freelance
>
> Hope this helps!
>

Keep in mind this is just a starting point. There are tons upon tons of inspiration books out there for graphic design stuff, not to mention educational books on all sorts of specialties. I love graphic design books, the hard physical copy of them. When I'm stuck on a project I like to flip through them, read a bit, and then revisit my work again.

Here are the books currently in my amazon wishlist, so I can't vouch for them, but I do plan on eventually owning them.

Wish List:

u/sailorst00pider · 2 pointsr/photoshop

Graphic design can be about communicating an idea, a message, a feeling. You don't need fancy tools/software to be a designer. You just need to have a message and a way to execute it... with whatever tools you have at your disposal. It's a hefty investment to get the adobe programs so I suggest starting off-screen. Maybe even reading about design history, ex: Meggs history of graphic design or looking at current, contemporary designers could spark some inspiration.

u/jaqula · 2 pointsr/graphic_design

For schools- Capilano University's IDEA program is pretty reputable within the industry. It recently became a 4-year degree program, and it offers a really great curriculum with a good balance of theory and application.

But, I'm also really pro self-teaching! If you don't have it already, I think Megg's History of Graphic Design would be a great book for you to study.

Also, you can get a free lynda.com membership via a lot of public libraries, so I'd look into that too. I find Skillshare more fun because you're encouraged to complete a project for every course, but Lynda has been around a while already and has a huge library of courses that may interest you. :)

u/ptsiii · 2 pointsr/graphic_design

Meggs' History of Graphic Design is a really good place to start.


also study typography. Learn the difference between serif, sans-serif, display fonts and how to use and combine them appropriately.

Stay away from software-specific tutorials. Learn the basic principals of design (layout, grid principals, color, proportion, negative space, etc.) before you get into software and you'll be way ahead of the game...


u/erikb42 · 2 pointsr/web_design

To be good at design in general, there's a few things you need to know.

  1. Basic 2d design and color theory: Elements of Colors + Interaction of Color

  2. Art and Deisgn history: Meggs' History of Graphic Design + Janson's History of Art

  3. Basics in grid systems and typography: Grid Systems

    Basically, there is no shortcut. You need to study the history and understand why things work or don't. A bit of psychology never hurt anyone either, even just a 101 class should be enough to get you started. Lastly, just remember this one thing, it will be the most important part in your career...CONCEPT IS KING. I cannot stress this enough, make sure everything you do has a big idea behind it. Something that lets you organize everything under it. I don't care how much UX/UI thought you have, how many ad units and SEO whatevers you did, without a great idea, its total shit and just fluff.
u/JoshShouldBeWorking · 2 pointsr/graphic_design
u/mannoymanno · 2 pointsr/Design

I've taken several typography classes and I have a core group of books that I constantly turn back to for information. I'm a total typo-file and I've read a lots on the topic, but these are my favorites:

Tips on working with type

A good book on just some basics and a little history of typefaces

If you're interested in learning a little history

More history

The first book I mentioned is a really good resource. Sometimes it's easy to make type look too fancy, but it's important to remember that it doesn't always have to do all the talking. Sometimes it's the main dish, sometimes it's a spice added to the whole.

As far as the color theory goes, I don't have much to contribute. Figured it'd be best to just share what I'm familiar with.

Happy designing!

u/snap · 2 pointsr/web_design

Oh sorry. My bad. Muller-Brockmann is a legend. I haven't read his book. Is it any good?

I suggested Alan Fletcher's "The Art of Looking Sideways". It's good for replenishing the creative juices. Also, "False Flat" by Aaron Betsky is awesome. And you can't go wrong with Phillip "Meggs' History of Graphic Design". Far too many people don't have that book.

EDIT: I haven't read Muller-Brockmann's book but I imagine it's a great take on the modernist/rationalist grid. Though, times are a-changin' my friend. If you look at the top design programs out there, say Yale MFA Graphic Design, Werkplaats or KABK for example, things aren't exactly the way they used to be. The only name we have for what's happening right now is Contemporary Graphic Design. I love it. It's an amazing time to be practicing Graphic Design. Though most web design doesn't even come close to interesting, unfortunately.

u/dspin153 · 2 pointsr/architecture

I don't have too much experience with Landscape Architecture besides about 6 months interning at a firm, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Books, I honestly don't know "the best"

I did however read these 3

http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Elements-Landscape-Architectural-Design/dp/0881334782

http://www.amazon.com/Basics-Landscape-Architecture-01-Design/dp/2940411123

http://www.amazon.com/Basics-Landscape-Architecture-02-Ecological/dp/2940411441/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y

They should get you started on Landscape stuff

For general architecture knowledge (if you don't get the other 3 get this one....if you do get the other 3, then get this one too)

http://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Francis-D-K-Ching/dp/0471752169/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_2


Tips for the first day.

same with any job, do what needs to be done and try to look happy doing it

u/volatile_ant · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

In addition to tamupino's suggestions, check out Form Space and Order.

I got a copy second-hand through Amazon for $5 a few years ago... Not sure why the prices are so high right now, but check back in the spring when all the architecture kids are selling their books off.

It touches a bit on passive solar design, and general forms, spaces and orders, as I am sure you can garner from the title.

u/Barabbas- · 2 pointsr/architecture

Architecture isn't a very textbook-y kind of field, so there aren't really many authoritative books that are universally used by everyone (other than the IBC).
Francis D. K. Ching is really the only exception to this rule as most schools seem to have incorporated at least one of his books into their curriculum. I would highly recommend the following:


Form Space and Order is a great introductory text that will introduce aspiring architects to some of the basic concepts of architecture.
Building Codes Illustrated relays code information graphically, making it easier to understand. It is not a replacement for the actual code, but it will at least give you an idea of what to look for.
Building Construction Illustrated is arguably the most useful of the three. I continue to refer back to this book even today and I'm not even in school anymore.

u/jetmark · 2 pointsr/architecture

Frank Ching's Architecture: Form, Space & Order is a good primer for architectural principles. It might be a little mature for an 11 year old, but it's got a lot of interesting drawings that explain design concepts.

EDIT: it's a bit old: the back cover on the "Look Inside!" preview says "Now with a CD-ROM", haha

u/J1mm · 2 pointsr/IWantToLearn

These two books were heavily used at my college. They're pretty useful, specifically for architectural work. They're geared towards creating your own designs, which I would encourage you to try.

http://www.amazon.com/Design-Drawing-Francis-D-Ching/dp/0471286540
http://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Francis-D-K-Ching/dp/0471752169

If you want to learn some of the more technical aspects, particularly perspective drawing, I would recommend taking a course from a local college. It can help you to start off on the right foot. Also, try doing some copy drawings of other artists work, and incorporate elements of their style that you enjoy.

u/raiderarch329 · 2 pointsr/architecture

you have a good start and it's always fun to sketch by hand and figure out how space works.

I know a lot of people here have said to pick up computer programs but I would start with learning how to scale and proportion first and the best way to do that is by hand. The computer is an amazing tool and can help tremendously but there is no replacement for hand sketching.

Check out some books by Francis DK Ching, they are a really good resource. Specifically Form, Space, and Order and since you seem to like laying out space also look at Interior Design Illustrated.

These aren't the end all be all resources but they are great for getting started and also show what a really well done sketch looks like.

Good luck and keep posting those sketches!

u/NoxMortalitus · 2 pointsr/architecture

I really, really love architecture: form, space, and order and use is as a guide quite often.

u/slow70 · 2 pointsr/CozyPlaces

You know, I don't really track such things on reddit so much, but the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) is sort of a hub for these things.

For years I didn't really have words or terms to go with my sentiment regarding our built environments, but reading first Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Death of the American Dream and then ["The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Environment] (https://www.amazon.com/Geography-Nowhere-Americas-Man-Made-Landscape/dp/0671888250) were wonderfully informative and encompassing on the topic.

Check out James Howard Kunstler's TED talk, you'll probably laugh and feel sad in equal parts.

It's incredible how wide reaching the effects are of our built environment, and in the United States, it's mostly negative.

u/chrisjayyyy · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape by James Howard Kunstler

I've probably read this book half a dozen times. A great summary of the problems with our car-centric built environment and how they came to be. Urban Planing and Development is a dry subject, but JHK has a good sense of humor in his writing and the book is an easy read.


( http://www.amazon.com/Geography-Nowhere-Americas-Man-Made-Landscape/dp/0671888250/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373057700&sr=1-1 - amazon link)

u/bnndforfatantagonism · 2 pointsr/nottheonion

"Pedestrian oriented neighbourhoods" are likely to have a lot of utility & are likely to undo a lot of the damage Automobiles have done to the urban environment as described in 'the Geography of Nowhere'. Particularly as they can afford automotive mobility to people who can't today drive on their own (elderly, children).

I don't think we'll get banning of manual vehicles, at least not quickly. There'll likely be a quickly rising standard of expected driving competence though. There's a 'pareto principle' in effect with car accidents, 20% of the drivers on the roads today cause about 80% of the accidents. When people have to drive to get to work, we let it go quite a bit. In the future, we're not gonna let that fly. Those people who still want to drive (& can drive) are still going to get there quicker than they did before, even with an expectation for them to give way to pedestrians, because most traffic is caused not by the limitations of the roads but by bad driving.

u/nwzimmer · 2 pointsr/pics

I'm surprised no one as mentioned this book yet; VERY good read on this subject...

"The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape"

http://www.amazon.com/The-Geography-Nowhere-Americas-Landscape/dp/0671888250/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333474570&sr=8-1

u/Canadave · 2 pointsr/geography

Seeing that you're interested in urban geography, Jane Jacobs' Death and Life of Great American Cities is a must. It's not always strictly about geography, but it's probably one of the best books written about cities in the 20th century, and it can be relevant in almost any urban geography course.

u/OremLK · 2 pointsr/IndieGaming

This would be an instant purchase for me if it was heavily based on the concepts of New Urbanism. That's really what I've been looking for in a city building sim, a game which understands and rewards the design principles most modern urban planners actually use in the real world.

I'd love a game which really allows you to get down to the street level and design cities based on pedestrian usage. I want to be able to tinker with things like sidewalk width, street trees, building height restrictions... all the little details, and see the effects of changing them. On a larger level, I'd like to be rewarded economically and environmentally for creating lovely urban neighborhoods that people would enjoy living in, on a street-by-street basis. And I'd like a game which models the long-term consequences of automobile culture as well--allow you to design those kinds of cities (Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix) but show the consequences of suburban sprawl in unhappiness, pollution, and economic problems.

Most city building sims play at too large of a scale for my taste, and often ignore what modern urban designers understand about what's important in real cities. Sim City especially has often been very guilty of this--encouraging heavily separated uses, with big zones of commercial, industrial, residential rather than the all-important "mixed-use neighborhood" where everything your citizens need is in walking distance of where they live.

A couple of books I'd recommend you read if you're interested in learning more about urban design as you develop this game:

u/rudy90023 · 2 pointsr/LosAngeles

The majority of all development in DTLA is completely shortsighted and go against proper urban planning in principle. I share your frustration and I'm glad there's some of us who think what they're doing is wrong for the city and its people. The city has or now seems it had a great opportunity in making this a great city. But that seems to fade further and further. I've become more pessimistic as the years pass. Jose Huizar has become the Robert Moses of Los Angeles going on a binge rubber-stamping horrible unwelcoming structures. History tells us these developments will not have longevity thus destroying the city's appeal. And for the guy who said we need a parking lot in that development. Time will prove you wrong. Studies conclude parking is extremely detrimental to a city both in economics and property value. The people in charge of city planning should travel a bit and take note of what works and what doesn't. You would think these people are well versed and educated but that seems to prove otherwise. Maybe Jose Huizar should read a little about Jane Jacobs' legacy in standing up to bad urban planning. http://www.amazon.com/Death-Life-Great-American-Cities/dp/067974195X

u/TANKSFORDEARLEADER · 2 pointsr/politics

It's something I've adapted from a few sources on urban planning/design. It's something I never thought about until recently, but the way we build places can have a huge effect on the people who live in them. Personally, I noticed that I was always happier in cities where I could walk around and see other people walking around, versus when I was in small towns where I had to drive to get to anything. I couldn't put my finger on what it was, exactly, until I was in college and got to read Jane Jacobs's Death and Life of Great American Cities. Suddenly it all started to make sense.

If you're interested in learning more, check out New Urbanism, r/urbanplanning, and maybe a good book on the subject, like Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design. This is a great place to start, it highlights some common problems in our current building patterns and pulls examples from all over the world to show ways that work better and help build happier places.

Some other good reads:

u/EccentricBolt · 2 pointsr/architecture

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs. I've read it a half dozen times.

u/KittenPurrs · 2 pointsr/CasualConversation
  1. Buy a plunger for each bathroom, and if you have an old garbage disposal in your kitchen, grab one for the kitchen too.

  2. Track down a copy of this, this, or something really similar. They're step-by-step instructions for most basic home repair projects, with lots of pictures, cutaways, and diagrams. You can search for YouTube vids for additional help, but having a physical reference book tends to make life a little easier.

    My folks always called repair people when things went wrong, so I didn't learn a lot of the basics. I inherited a weird collection of these old Reader's Digest how-to manuals from my grandparents, and they got me out of a lot of jams. Highly recommend.
u/wolf395 · 2 pointsr/booksuggestions

I'll add Fermat's Enigma to my ever growing reading list. If you haven't had a chance to read Bryson's "At Home", do it. It's one of my favorites

u/SpankSearch · 2 pointsr/AbandonedPorn

Funny you should ask!

No, I am NOT BB trying to push book sales:

http://www.amazon.com/At-Home-Short-History-Private/dp/0767919394


A UK home. FULL of amazing facts. Not his best I think, but still a great read.

The US used to have forests that went on for thousands of miles.


Since 1600, 90% of the virgin forests that once covered much of the lower 48 states have been cleared away. Most of the remaining old-growth forests in the lower 48 states and Alaska are on public lands. In the Pacific Northwest about 80% of this forestland is slated for logging.


http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/deforest/deforest.html

u/DasGanon · 2 pointsr/techtheatre

Would also maybe throw on "At Home" by Bill Bryson it's not too relevant, but it's a fun history of western houses and can help inspire with Scenic design.

u/CallMeTwain · 2 pointsr/whatisthisthing

At Home: A Short History of Private Life

One of my favorite books from my favorite author. Definitely a good read for anyone who wants to learn about the things you'd never think you'd want to know about. Like why forks have 4 tongs instead of 3 or 5 and why we have such an abiding attachment to salt and pepper instead of cinnamon and cardamom.

u/sweater_ · 2 pointsr/AYearOfLesMiserables

I really love the book At Home by Bill Bryson and that’s basically all digressions...so when I read there were tons of digressions about the Paris sewer system, argot, the battle of Waterloo and so on, I said to myself, “this sounds like a beautiful literary marriage of my favorite things! Sign me up!”

u/notasgr · 2 pointsr/DIY

Assume it's to do with history of toilets and the British bringing their housing style with them to Australia. [wiki link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_(room). Also, Bill Bryson's book "At Home: A Short History of Private Life" is full of interesting bits about all sorts of rooms/furniture in our homes.

u/plainjim · 2 pointsr/booksuggestions

"At Home" is a fantastic book by bill bryson. It is a history of "homelife". The book is framed roughly by bill as he walks through his house in england. As he passes through each room in the house (kitchen, dining room, living room, bedroom) he tells the history of humans as it relates to that room. How we slept and courted (in ancient times, as history progressed, up until now), how we ate, how we studied and farmed, etc. It is a page turner for sure, he has amazing style. It is more focused on the changes that occurred from the middle ages until now but does touch on antiquity.

I highly recommend it. It appears to be exactly what you are looking for. It details how specific technologies and tools changed the way we live. How/where did people shit before the toilet? Did they wipe or use water? What did they eat off of? How was food cooked and preserved? How were jobs allocated?

One fact I gleaned? When you buy a college dorm plan or hotel that includes "Room and board" (which means a bed to sleep in and food), the phrase comes from the fact that in the medieval ages tavern patrons ate their food off of a wooden board laid across their laps.

u/kimmature · 2 pointsr/books

The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. I'm a fan of time-travel, and history, and I was completely sucked into it. She's got a number of books in the same universe- some comedic, some very dramatic, but The Doomsday Book is my favourite.

If you're at all interested in high fantasy, I'd recommend either Tigana or The Fionovar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. You either love his prose style or hate it, but if you love it, it will definitely take you away.

If you like SF and haven't read them, I'd try either Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos, or David Brin's Uplift Series (I'd skip Sundiver until later, and start with Startide Rising.)

If you're looking for more light-hearted/quirky, I'd try Christopher Moore- either Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal , or The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror. If you're into a mix of horror/sf/comedy, try John Dies at the End. They're not deep, but they're fun.

Non-fiction- if you haven't read it yet, Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air is very difficult to put down. If you're travelling with someone who doesn't mind you looking up every few pages and saying "did you know this, this is awesome, wow-how interesting", I'd go for Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants or Bill Bryson's At Home: A Short History of Private Life. They're all very informative, fun, interesting books, but they're even better if you can share them while you're reading them.



u/Unfetteredfloydfan · 2 pointsr/CGPGrey

Besides the huge cost of building these bridges at every intersection, or at least the major intersections, is the problem of pulling people away from the sidewalk and the businesses that reside there. By designing a city so exclusively for cars, you run the risk of disenfranchising pedestrians, which is a dangerous game to play.

Pedestrians are vital to the local economy, especially in cities, because they are far more likely to give their patronage to businesses than the people driving.
There are a bunch of other problems with discouraging pedestrians, like the destruction of the sense of community of an area or the public health problems that could be engendered to name a few.

I'm pulling these points from a book called "Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time" by Jeff Speck. It's a really interesting read, and if you're interested in the subject of urban planning, it's a must read.

Here's a link to the book:
https://www.amazon.com/Walkable-City-Downtown-Save-America/dp/0865477728

u/Complaingeleno · 2 pointsr/Futurology

Jeff Speck has some good introductory writing on the topic. Check out Step 5 of Part II under the heading "Keep it complicated"

That PDF is kinda janky, so here's an Amazon link if you're interested: https://www.amazon.com/Walkable-City-Downtown-Save-America/dp/0865477728/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=walkable+city&qid=1563914434&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Excerpt:
> Welcome to the world of risk homeostasis, a very real place that exists well
outside the blinkered gaze of the traffic engineering profession. Risk homeostasis
describes how people automatically adjust their behavior to maintain a comfortable
level of risk. It explains why poisoning deaths went up after childproof caps were
introduced—people stopped hiding their medicines—and why the deadliest
intersections in America are typically the ones you can navigate with one finger on the
steering wheel and a cellphone at your ear. [9]

u/DustCongress · 2 pointsr/architecture

Some recent-ish architecture/urban design books that are really good reads & from well respected practitioners!

Walkable City by Jeff Speck

Happy City by Charles Montgomery

Cities for People by Jan Gehl

Otherwise, most stationary/art stores should stock some [Rotring] (http://www.rotring.com/en/) pens/mechanical pencils. They are high quality drafting pens that are always in high demand.

source: I own a lot, and still want many more. Always handy.

u/HodorTheCondor · 2 pointsr/urbanplanning

Jeff Speck’s “Walkable City: How Downtown can Save America, One Step at a Time”” is a personal favorite. He quotes his work in Lowell, MA throughout the book.

I’ve also been recommended to read Cheryl Heller’s “The Intergalactic Design Guide: Harnessing the Creative Potential of Social Design” and while I haven’t yet had the chance to pick it up, I think it might be up the alley of what you’re looking for.

I’m halfway through James and Deborah Fallows’ “Our Towns: A 100,000 Mile Journey into the Heart of America” which is also excellent, and provides a great set of case studies in urban revitalization.

My own masters practica (in Emergency management) is on creating greater access to healthcare via some urban planning interventions in a similar New England city, if not the same one.

I’m local to Boston, and would be happy to loan you the first and last books, should you be interested.

Cheers!

u/for_the_love_of_beet · 2 pointsr/mildlyinteresting

Yes!!! I read about this in Jeff Speck's "Walkable City," and it instantly turned me into the kind of person who spouts off lectures about the importance of trees in cities whenever it comes up in conversation. I'd always been in favor of them, because they're beautiful and they provide shade and create and environment that's generally pleasant to be in, but there are SO MANY more tangible, measurable benefits. It's beyond frustrating to me that it's not prioritized more.

EDIT: For those interested, Jeff Speck's TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/jeff_speck_the_walkable_city

u/jtprimeasaur · 2 pointsr/architecture

Francis Ching wrote half the books I used for detailing in school, if you don't mind reading up and studying, I'd definitely look into getting some of his books. We specifically used this one a lot https://www.amazon.ca/Building-Construction-Illustrated-Francis-Ching/dp/1118458346

u/cerpintaxt2112 · 2 pointsr/architecture

Francis Ching is the industry standard for building details and architectural drawing. His books primarily focus on contemporary building but it will give you a good understanding.

Here is a link to his bibliography

This is a great book showing construction details

Good luck!

u/warchitect · 2 pointsr/PenmanshipPorn

Oh good ol' Materials and Methods class...I just read this book. I didn't copy the damn thing! lol. Nice work.

u/CSMastermind · 2 pointsr/AskComputerScience

Senior Level Software Engineer Reading List


Read This First


  1. Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment

    Fundamentals


  2. Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture
  3. Enterprise Integration Patterns: Designing, Building, and Deploying Messaging Solutions
  4. Enterprise Patterns and MDA: Building Better Software with Archetype Patterns and UML
  5. Systemantics: How Systems Work and Especially How They Fail
  6. Rework
  7. Writing Secure Code
  8. Framework Design Guidelines: Conventions, Idioms, and Patterns for Reusable .NET Libraries

    Development Theory


  9. Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests
  10. Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications
  11. Introduction to Functional Programming
  12. Design Concepts in Programming Languages
  13. Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective
  14. Modern Operating Systems
  15. Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change
  16. The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles
  17. Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software

    Philosophy of Programming


  18. Making Software: What Really Works, and Why We Believe It
  19. Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain How They Think
  20. The Elements of Programming Style
  21. A Discipline of Programming
  22. The Practice of Programming
  23. Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective
  24. Object Thinking
  25. How to Solve It by Computer
  26. 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts

    Mentality


  27. Hackers and Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age
  28. The Intentional Stance
  29. Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes In The Age Of The Machine
  30. The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
  31. The Timeless Way of Building
  32. The Soul Of A New Machine
  33. WIZARDRY COMPILED
  34. YOUTH
  35. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

    Software Engineering Skill Sets


  36. Software Tools
  37. UML Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard Object Modeling Language
  38. Applying UML and Patterns: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design and Iterative Development
  39. Practical Parallel Programming
  40. Past, Present, Parallel: A Survey of Available Parallel Computer Systems
  41. Mastering Regular Expressions
  42. Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools
  43. Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice in C
  44. Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book
  45. The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security
  46. SOA in Practice: The Art of Distributed System Design
  47. Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques
  48. Data Crunching: Solve Everyday Problems Using Java, Python, and more.

    Design


  49. The Psychology Of Everyday Things
  50. About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design
  51. Design for Hackers: Reverse Engineering Beauty
  52. The Non-Designer's Design Book

    History


  53. Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality
  54. Death March
  55. Showstopper! the Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft
  56. The PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet Earth
  57. The Business of Software: What Every Manager, Programmer, and Entrepreneur Must Know to Thrive and Survive in Good Times and Bad
  58. In the Beginning...was the Command Line

    Specialist Skills


  59. The Art of UNIX Programming
  60. Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment
  61. Programming Windows
  62. Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X
  63. Starting Forth: An Introduction to the Forth Language and Operating System for Beginners and Professionals
  64. lex & yacc
  65. The TCP/IP Guide: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Internet Protocols Reference
  66. C Programming Language
  67. No Bugs!: Delivering Error Free Code in C and C++
  68. Modern C++ Design: Generic Programming and Design Patterns Applied
  69. Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C#
  70. Pragmatic Unit Testing in C# with NUnit

    DevOps Reading List


  71. Time Management for System Administrators: Stop Working Late and Start Working Smart
  72. The Practice of Cloud System Administration: DevOps and SRE Practices for Web Services
  73. The Practice of System and Network Administration: DevOps and other Best Practices for Enterprise IT
  74. Effective DevOps: Building a Culture of Collaboration, Affinity, and Tooling at Scale
  75. DevOps: A Software Architect's Perspective
  76. The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations
  77. Site Reliability Engineering: How Google Runs Production Systems
  78. Cloud Native Java: Designing Resilient Systems with Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, and Cloud Foundry
  79. Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation
  80. Migrating Large-Scale Services to the Cloud
u/rickymetz · 2 pointsr/web_design

Read Design for Hackers, it's catered towards educating developers and engineers on the basics of design : Color, Layout, Typography, etc...

My process is for product design (building web apps and software) but it applies to static sites as well.

1. Consider your end goal for each piece of the product and optimize your UI/UX (User Interface and User Experience) for that goal. Start on larger site-wide goals and work your way into more granular component based goals. Establish a hierarchy of user needs and make give the most important things the most prominence.

>e.g.If you're building a blog site: Your overall goal is for users to find consume your content. The goal of the Navigation component is for users to easily get a sense of where they are on the site (information/site architecture) and navigate to different areas of the site.

2. Design and build your site with these goals are paramount, discard anything that doesn't advance your site towards these goals. Don't include something just because it's a typical convention or it's trendy (does a blog really need a rotating banner or carousel). Anytime you add something make sure it can pass this litmus test:

>Is this relavent to the siteIs this fulfilling a user need? Is this the best way for users to consume this piece of content?

The rubber duck method of debugging is also useful for critiquing design. Explain to your rubber duck why you choose these colors, this typeface, why you made the body copy this size, etc...

3. Establish rules, and stick to them unless absolutely necessary. People are great at recognizing patterns and prefer to have their content consistent. Could you imagine how frustrating it would be if every chapter in a book was typeset in a different font? In the same way it's frustrating as a user to identify a pattern (eg all of the links are blue and italicized) only for it to change arbitrarily throughout the site ("Wait. Why are the links not italicized now?"). If you have to change a pattern make sure it's for a good reason.

u/ChilliStarta · 2 pointsr/webdev

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Design-Hackers-Reverse-Engineering-Beauty/dp/1119998956 is a great start. Covers all of the basics really well.

u/wooq · 1 pointr/PoliticalDiscussion

The political and marketing influence of the car industry played a huge part, but it's as much a cultural and urban planning thing as it is industry driven. Entire cities are built around catering to people in cars... there are vast swathes of strip malls and supercenters where there aren't even sidewalks but there are huge multi-story parking garages. Cities are zoned to have most of the population separated from areas where they participate in commerce... our entire life has become decentralized and auto-focused. Public railways serve a very small niche when both endpoints are, by design, far-removed from anything you'd want to explore. By contrast, in places in Europe and Asia, you get off the train and onto the bus or subway, and the bus stop or subway station is smack dab in the middle of shopping and business, and business is much more local.

A couple interesting books on this topic are Fighting Traffic (Peter Norton), Geography of Nowhere (James Kunstler) and Asphalt Nation (Jane Holtz Kay), worth a read if you're really interested in the topic.

u/brianjshepherd · 1 pointr/explainlikeimfive

I recommend reading The Geography of Nowhere. The book has its ups and downs and its points and non-points but I think it gets to the heart of what you are asking.

u/Garimasaurus · 1 pointr/books
u/470vinyl · 1 pointr/boston

Woah, easy killer.

Look I get what you're saying. Highways and wide lanes seem like sexy things. That's exactly what I used to think as well before I started learning about urban planning and transit design. There's a lot of intricacies about it but here's some good beginner stuff

First, check out r/urbanplanning. Super interesting sub about the city ecosystem and how to design a successful city.


Books:

"The Death and Life of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs. Basically the bible of city design.

"Walkable City" by Jeff Speck is also an awesome book. That guy is a great presenter as well

Videos:

How Highways Wrecked American Cities

Why Public Transportation Sucks in the US

Why Trains Suck in America

How Closing Roads Could Speed Up Traffic - The Braess Paradox

How to Fix Traffic Forever

Presentations:

Basically any presentation by Jeff Speck

What it boils down to, is you destroy the urban environment by introducing cars. They take up so much room that can be used for dense development but requiring parking sports and wide streets.

Great representation of what car do to cities

This is my last comment here. I can't argue with someone about urban development/planning if they haven't studied the topic themselves. It's a topsy-turvey thing to us living in the post automobile United States, but it makes sense after you do some research.

Enjoy!

u/laryblabrmouth · 1 pointr/sanfrancisco

While the topic is laundromats... its much bigger issue. Cities need diversity, and diversity in services...
https://www.amazon.com/Death-Life-Great-American-Cities/dp/067974195X

So go the laundromats, bars, hardware stores, any specialty shops, florists, shoe repair, pet stores, thrift stores... it goes on. All these are being sacrificed for high density housing.

u/alias_impossible · 1 pointr/nyc

1: more intended as commentary attacking the underlying comment’s sense of “this is my neighborhood because I’m Dutch and so were the people there hundreds of years ago”. Everyone is welcome, but that attitude is kind of nativist and off putting in addition to entitled.

2: https://www.amazon.com/Death-Life-Great-American-Cities/dp/067974195X - The people in the community make it great again which makes it attractive for gentrification.

u/PM_me_goat_gifs · 1 pointr/boston
u/emu5088 · 1 pointr/MapPorn

For those who haven't read it, I highly suggest reading The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, even if you have only a slight interest in architecture and urban planning. It was one of the first works to argue against the (then popular) planning practices like Le Corbusier's, and Robert Moses' (who wreaked havoc on neighborhoods and championed automobile connectivity, rather than human connectivity).

Despite it being written in the 1960s, it's aged little. It's an absolutely enthralling work, and is now the standard for many urban planning decisions, thankfully.

u/estherfm · 1 pointr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

Two days ago I was on a plant walk with my class. We were using a book called Newcomb's Wildflower Guide to ID plants. The first time we did a group ID, everyone had it wrong but I found the right page by myself. The second time, once again I keyed out the plant by myself while everyone else did it as a group. Once again, I got to a different plant than everyone else and I said to the guy next to me, "They're all wrong." He looked at the page I had open and said, "No, that's not it." He pointed me to the actual plant, the one that the rest of the class had arrived at.

Why on earth did I do that? Sometimes I'm a cocky bastard :/

I want this thing. Whether you get it used or new (and used is great) you'll have some left over for someone else :)

u/hardtoremember · 1 pointr/AskReddit

Get yourself a good DIY Home Repair book. I'm already pretty good at home repairs but this book is awesome and I actually own it: Reader's Digest Complete DIY Home Repair

Once you get a general understanding of what you're doing you'll know what your limits are and you'll be more confident taking on more difficult projects. I will give you one bit of advice from personal experience; when dealing with electrical it is ALWAYS a good idea to go check the breaker once more and be absolutely sure it is OFF before you shock the hell out of yourself.

u/_dd_ · 1 pointr/everymanshouldknow

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Do-It-Yourself-Manual-Completely-Revised/dp/0762105798

I'm not an expert in this stuff by any means, but I think the above book is an excellent intro into exploring single topics in more detail. Gives enough info to know where and when to dig deeper.

u/PParker46 · 1 pointr/chicago

The most recent copy you can find of one of the main line DIY home improvement books. Often on sale at places like Lowes and Home Depot. I've always found Readers Digest hard cover editions very good because of their careful illustrations and focus on work within a handyman's skill range. Note that some publishers including Readers Digest also publish maintenance manuals so be sure you are getting the right one. Get the most recent edition for exposure to current top grade techniques and materials. Here's an example: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Do-Yourself-Manual-Completely/dp/0762105798

u/KryptonianZod · 1 pointr/DIY

I absolutely LOVE the Reader's Diegest Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual. It's old, but there are a lot of good things in there

u/DatDudeIsMe · 1 pointr/homeowners

This might help: /r/anxiety

But seriously, it'll all be good, dude. I just closed on my first house two weeks ago. The inspection should've covered you on anything major. Your homeowners insurance will be there to protect you from bigger issues. And anything else that goes wrong will be small and fixable. My house is 80+ years old and I'm finding little things here and there that need fixing/tune ups. There are so many resources out there to help you. I bought this book. It's old, but still relevant and can teach you about how things work in your house. Highly recommend. And anything you're not comfortable fixing yourself, ask around for recommendations on local handymen.

u/clarustnb · 1 pointr/homeowners

I've been lurking on the r/diy and r/homeowners for a long time while I was going through my house hunting. [Settlement is August 21... so exciting].

I don't remember the post but this book came highly recommended from a few other redditors. I just bought it and at first glance it looks fantastic for the initial concept of 'what does this mean and what does it entail.

u/kruegersar · 1 pointr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

I like big books and I cannot lie really... I love them.

Non-fiction:
History of your home!
Some badass women!
What did those lyrics mean?

fiction:
The Magic of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt Jr. Its a huge series, that is the first one.
Or seriously, anything by Dan Simmons. :)

u/brilu34 · 1 pointr/AskHistory
u/alamandrax · 1 pointr/suggestmeabook

currently reading At home: A Short History of Private Life. Riveting stuff.

u/ekofromlost · 1 pointr/history

Bill Bryson's "At Home" covers it. And other stories, like why we still have buttons on our jacker sleeves, since they have no purpose.

It's not better than "A short History of Everything" but It's a very nice read. We learn a lot and have a blast.

u/workpuppy · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

Fiction or non-fiction?

My favourite "happy" non-fiction is Bill Bryson. I just finished At home and it was the sort of book that made me laugh out loud, and also want grab random people and read out cool little passages about random things.

Nice little piece of popular science, The Red Queen is a well written and interesting book about the evolutionary basis for sex.

I love David McCullough...He's like Bryson, except where Bryson would spend 5 pages on something, McCullough will spend a thousand, and leave you feeling like you know the person he's writing about better than you know your family. My favourites of his aren't the biographies (he wins a Pulizter for damn near every one), but the stories of buildings and events. The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, The Path Between the Seas...All great, though the Pulitzers were for his Truman biography, and his John Adams biography.

For fiction? Hmmm. Intellectual and not depressing is tricky. I like Michael Chabon, but he flirts with depressing on a regular basis. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is amazing, and so is The Yiddish Policeman's Union.

u/euric · 1 pointr/books

Malcolm Gladwell or Bill Bryson spring to mind. Entertaining, engaging and light hearted, yet still packed with good content.

If you were looking for fiction recommendations, have you thought of short stories? Gabriel Garcia Marquez has quite a collection - I'd recommend Strange Pilgrims.

Edit: Added links.

u/Variable303 · 1 pointr/books

Thanks for the tips! The pie shakes at Hamburg Inn sound amazing. I actually just caved in tonight and got a burger/shake combo after a week of eating healthy...

As far as recommendations go, I have a feeling you've likely read most of the fiction I'd suggest. That said, here's a couple non-fiction suggestions you might not have read:

Walkable City, by Jeff Speck. If you've ever been interested in cities, what makes them work (or not work), and what types of decisions urban planners make, check it out. It's a quick read, entertaining, and you'll never see your city or any other city in the same way.

Nothing to Envy, by Barbara Demick. Told primarily through the eyes of two people, this book provides readers with a glimpse of what life is like for the millions of ordinary North Korean citizens.

Anyway, I know it's well past the time frame for your AMA, but if you get a chance, I'd love to know if there's any one book that helped you the most as a writer (e.g. King's, "On Writing"), or any one piece of advice that has carried you the most. I don't ever plan on writing professionally, but I've always wanted to write a novel just for the satisfaction of creating something, regardless if anyone actually reads it. I just feel like I spend so much time consuming things others have created, while creating nothing in return. Plus, getting 'lost in a world you're creating' sounds immensely satisfying.

u/mewfasa · 1 pointr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

MONDAY

I highly recommend 1984 by George Orwell if you haven't read it. I know it's a classic, but many people still haven't read it. It's by far my favorite book of all time.

I would love Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time.

Thanks for the contest!

u/ArkadyAbdulKhiar · 1 pointr/civilengineering

I think you would enjoy "Building Construction Illustrated" by Francis D. K. Ching. Link here. Our office has a copy of this and it does a reasonable job of explaining "conventional framing." By that I mean the kind of layout and details that contractors are familiar with, less likely to complain about, and less likely to improperly install. I think it focuses more on timber framing. We rarely spec masonry but have to deal with it with existing structures; I think CERM's chapters on masonry are a good primer on that.

​

Off the top of my head I don't know of any publicly available drawing and design calculation examples, but for low-rise structures you'll rarely see performance-based design unless it's a (well-funded) historic or institutional building. Lateral design will largely come out of ASCE 7-10, SDPWS, and TMS 402/602 and be copied into MS Excel. I've seen engineering calc packages from other firms and the visual/ functional quality is all over the place. I also saw an ASCE 7-10 wind design spreadsheet online last year if that helps. The International Residential Code (as adopted by California here) has some figures in there if you're interested in how prescriptive timber design looks. There are some figures in R602 and R606 that set the baseline for timber and masonry construction, respectively.

u/wholegrainoats44 · 1 pointr/architecture

Some books to help with that, depending on what you need.

Architecture Reference - A good introduction that also goes into specifics.

Building Construction Illustrated - A broad overview of most parts of putting a building together (technical).

The Function of Ornament - A more theoretical view of architecture in a modern cultural context; you might find it interesting in regards to your job as a social scientist (not cheap, though).

Hope this helps!

u/JoshMonroe · 1 pointr/woodworking

This book has some good info in it. It is where I get a lot of my dimensions.

u/buildthyme · 1 pointr/architecture

Anything in particular that interests you? It's such a broad topic that it's difficult to suggest a point of entry.

A library will be your best bet. This book gives a nice overview of notable buildings: www.amazon.com/Buildings-across-Time-Introduction-Architecture/dp/007305304X/ref=smi_www_rco2_go_smi_1968491462?_encoding=UTF8&Version=1&entries=0&pf_rd_p=1968491462&pf_rd_s=smile-campaign&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=007305304X&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1V150HKR2JVVBKAEJT9G

An introduction to how buildings are assembled:http://www.amazon.com/Building-Construction-Illustrated-Francis-Ching/dp/1118458346/ref=zg_bs_173508_11

u/bikemuffin · 1 pointr/architecture

My favorite is Ching's Building Construction Illustrated: http://www.amazon.com/Building-Construction-Illustrated-Francis-Ching/dp/1118458346

I used it when taking my licensing exams. Wish I had it in school.

u/thedevlinb · 1 pointr/reactnative

RN styling is pretty much modern CSS styling using Flexbox.

Good mobile UX design is independent of what framework you are using. If you want to start adding animations and such, then you need to dive more into the RN ecosystem, but to just make something that is visually pleasing, learn basic design principles.

Pick up a copy of Design for Hackers. Yes it is a large book, but UX is a field people get a 4+ year degree in!

Same author, you can sign up for his online course.

After you understand the basics, Google's Material Design page can then give you insight as to how larger companies think about design.

Knowing what a visual hierarchy is, how to create it, and how to purposefully direct the user's eye around is fundamental though. It is the difference between an app that is easy to use an an app that is frustrating to use. It is also the difference between a landing page that converts and a landing page that doesn't convert!

Drop shadows and rounded borders and even icons go in and out of style, but good use of typography, not over-using colors, and good visual hierarchy are universally fundamental to all good design.

Edit: Best $ I ever spent was paying a good designer to give me UX guidelines.

u/WhatCouldBeBetter · 1 pointr/web_design

Design for Hackers is a good starting point, especially for programmers.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119998956

u/PhoneHomeDev · 1 pointr/battlestations

Yes ~2 grand of engineering books. Occasionally I will reference them, but google is quicker.

At the top is this book

Its my design/hackers bible, if you will.

u/adamnemecek · 1 pointr/webdev

I was in a similar boat. I'm still not quite 'good' at design but I'm making progress.
Check out this https://medium.com/@karenxcheng/how-to-get-a-job-as-a-designer-without-going-to-design-school-bad8cdb67068

http://www.amazon.com/Design-Hackers-Reverse-Engineering-Beauty/dp/1119998956

This is assuming that you know HTML + CSS. If not, learn those too. This is a pretty useful guide for writing CSS https://smacss.com/

u/CoachSeven · 1 pointr/Design
u/theehurdygurdyman · 1 pointr/web_design

Design for Hackers is a decent book, aimed squarely a Developers looking to pickup some design skills.

u/Atwelve · 1 pointr/androiddev

Design for Hackers is a pretty good read to help you in addition to the Google links shared above

u/rajvosa07 · 1 pointr/webdev

You need to check out this book. It is well written and particularly so for people who are coming in from a developer point of view: Design for Hackers: Reverse Engineering Beauty
https://www.amazon.com/Design-Hackers-Reverse-Engineering-Beauty/dp/1119998956

u/Richman777 · 1 pointr/apple

Yup, designers throughout history have been following specific ratios because it means nothing. The golden ratio and fibbonaci ratios have nothing to add in design.

The above 3 examples are garbage because he wasn't really using this grid to create them. I was explaining what following a grid design means, which you obviously don't understand. If the play button was bigger (in the ham-fisting the grid on top of the shuffle), how the hell would it have stuck to the grid layout when it would obviously be outside of the inner ring?

Read this and learn something: http://www.amazon.com/Design-Hackers-Reverse-Engineering-Beauty/dp/1119998956

u/floatbit · 1 pointr/freelance

I'm currently reading Design for Hackers (http://www.amazon.com/Design-Hackers-Reverse-Engineering-Beauty/dp/1119998956).

I'm a web developer also, and was always curious why designers choose certain fonts for certain mediums - for e.g. I learned Garamond is the most readable typeface for printed media and is also 400 years old, Georgia is the most readable serif font for the web, Arial is nearly the same as Helvetica and is the most readable sans serif on screen, and everyone hates Comic Sans and the book explains why (kerning between letter combinations is not optimized for example).

These are probably common knowledge to practiced designers, but from someone that looks at if else statements all day long, it was a wow moment.

The book goes on in depth by "reverse engineering Impressionist painting, Renaissance sculpture, the Mac OS X Aqua interface, Twitter's web interface, and much more" and goes on to "color theory, typography, proportions, and design principles", which really speaks an engineer's language.

u/QuestionAxer · 1 pointr/funny

For anyone curious, it's from the book Design for Hackers.

u/bierz · 1 pointr/woodworking

I really never use shellac, so I may not be the best resource on that.
I also don't think I would ever use solely wax, though some people do that. I like my woods to look natural and typically don't want a high gloss. I find myself using Danish Oil or Arm R Seal. Danish Oil is an "in the wood" finish. You let it soak and remove the excess from the surface. Arm R Seal does have some polyurethane in it so can build coats on the surface. I don't work with pine but most finishes will add at least a slight amber hue. For a bedside table I'd want some protection so would think Arm R Seal could work well for you. This book is great .

u/BedHedNed · 1 pointr/turning

A few things:

  • We weren't talking about a cutting board, we were talking about a bowl.
  • I agree that film finishes shouldn't be used on surfaces meant for food preparation, however linseed oil is not a film building finish. So your point is moot.
  • Boiled linseed oil is unfit for human consumption do to the addition of metallic dryers which speed up curing. Raw linseed oil is absolutely fit for human consumption and exactly the same as flaxseed oil.
  • Almost every food oil (sesame oil, peanut oil etc) is extracted via solvents. Solvents evaporate, there is zero solvent left in the oil afterward.
  • You're mistaken if you think I have any problem with mineral oil, I don't. The person here committing the naturalistic fallacy here is you. You apparently think linseed oil that was extracted via solvents (like almost every other food oil) is so toxic that not only should you not consume it, you shouldn't even finish a wooden bowl with it. But cold pressed flaxseed oil is better because it's more "natural". I was just pointing out your hypocrisy.

    In any case, mineral oil is not a real wood finish as it does nothing to protect the wood and eventually evaporates. You evidently don't know much about wood finishing, here's a good book on the subject to get you started.
u/sleepingsquirrel · 1 pointr/INTP

Just throwing out some topic areas that have interested me lately:

  • Manual metal machining (lathe/mill)
  • Welding / brazing
  • glass blowing / lamp work
  • cellular automata
  • superconductivity
  • watchmaking / clockwork
  • thermodynamics / entropy / heat engines
  • common lisp
  • turtle geometry
  • hypnosis
  • reading body language
  • woodworking
  • electroplating / electrochemical machining
  • Bayesian probability
  • analog translinear circuits
  • cellular biology

    Things on my todo list to learn more about in the future:

  • chemistry
  • differential equations
  • plastics
  • knots
  • metallurgy
  • fractional calculus
  • space filling curves
  • self-assembling / self-replicating machines / structures
  • Quines
  • jewelry making
  • metrology
  • molecular biology

    Other things...

  • regular expressions
  • Astronomy
  • Telescope making / optics (grinding mirrors)
  • topology
  • Theory of relativity
  • ice sculptures
  • philosophy of math, intuitionism, ultra-finitism.
  • wood finishing
  • switching power supply topologies
  • bicycle making
  • illusions / magic tricks
  • electrophoresis
  • social insect behavior
  • Godel's theorem
  • Game theory
  • tesla coils
  • gun smithing
  • drawing
  • n-body choreographies

u/bobdylans49thbeard · 1 pointr/web_design

The book Grid Systems by Kimberly Elam is amazing and extremely useful in understanding design. Available on Amazon here. I can't recommend it enough.

u/kakajuice · 1 pointr/Design

First, I would study some basic design principles. Look at a few books on typography, grid, etc. Learn about some of the major design movements.

Check out these book:
http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Principles-Design-Revised-Updated/dp/1592535879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299115160&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Grid-Systems-Principles-Organizing-Design/dp/1568984650/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299115186&sr=1-7-spell

What tends to happen is most people dive into these tutorials knowing how to use the programs, but not knowing anything about design in general. Knowing how to use Photoshop doesn't necessarily mean you are a designer, like knowing how to play a few chords on a guitar doesn't necessarily make you a musician.

Web design is big now, but if you want to hop on the next gravy train, I'd suggest getting into Mobile / Tablet visual design. The demand is hot and theres not enough people who know how to do proper visual design for touch screen devices.

Oh yeah, and Lynda.com and tutsplus is good too. Learn the programs, but don't expend too much energy learning fancy lighting tricks until you've learnt the basics of design. It'll help build a foundation on which you can go from there.





u/andhelostthem · 1 pointr/Design

Look for books on grid design (here's a simple one I own), check out some magazines with good design (wired, espn) and watch framing and color use in high end commercials, billboards and print ads.

u/PusherLoveGirl · 1 pointr/GraphicDesign

If you want to get more in-depth with grids and layouts you should check out Grid Systems by Kimberly Elam. It has a lot of explanations on what different layouts and grids accomplish and includes pictures of grid-based layouts with a transparent page with that layout's grid overlaid on the image (i.e. there's a transparent page with just the grid and the next page is the actual image).

It's really helped me out in certain designs and in general is an interesting book.

u/puck2 · 1 pointr/providence

George Costanza, the quintessential New Yorker, once said, "My father didn't pay for parking, my mother, my brother, nobody. It's like going to a prostitute. Why should I pay when, if I apply myself, maybe I can get it for free?" The High Cost of Free Parking, Donald Shoup's 733-page tour de force, has the answer. With the exception of a Monopoly board, there is no such thing as free parking. In fact, free parking turns out to be the biggest problem you never thought about. "We all want to park free," Shoup writes. "But we also want to reduce traffic congestion, energy consumption and air pollution. We want affordable housing, efficient transportation, green space, good urban design, great cities and a healthy economy. Unfortunately, ample free parking conflicts with all these other goals."

u/kiwipete · 1 pointr/reddit.com

Yes, and we subsidize an oversupply of parking to start with! http://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking/dp/1884829988

u/Pixelated_Penguin · 1 pointr/LosAngeles

>But it would appear that the argument is that parking needs to be priced accordingly to cost of maintained the parking structure of what-have-you.

Nope, I'm not. Never have, never will.

Parking needs to be priced at the rate that will leave enough spaces free at any given time that people seeking parking can find a space in their first try, rather than circling. Fines have to be set at a rate where people feel that the risk of the fine is great enough that they'll pay the meter. Given how high our rate of unpaid meters is in Los Angeles, our fines aren't high enough (though I think this is more about average fines... in other words, rather than increasing the dollar amount of the fine further, I think we need to increase the chance you will get a ticket, but that's another discussion.)

That article, BTW, is one of his first efforts on the subject. The book was published in 2011. Since then, there have been a lot of other articles. Municipal parking garages are definitely a piece of the puzzle (he's opposed to requiring businesses to build in their own parking, for a lot of good reasons), but they don't really interact with meter rates. Instead, they're supported by their own parking fees and in-lieu fees from businesses who get exemptions from parking requirements.

u/chadcf · 1 pointr/gaming
u/EdwardTeller · 1 pointr/DotA2
u/pacifictime · 1 pointr/LosAngeles

All I'm saying is that if neighbors would like to convert a public street into a private parking lot, they ought to pay for that privilege. I'm not actually opposed to PPDs, I just felt someone should respond to /u/kheszi.

Parking requirements are actually a pretty thorny subject when you look at them close. If you're interested I recommend Donald Shoup's work.

u/joeydsa · 1 pointr/Atlanta

There is no such thing as free parking. It cost money to build and maintain parking spaces, and that cost typically gets past on through the resident via either rent or purchase price. You pay for the premium weather you want to or not, but by requiring parking by law, you force others to pay for the premium as well.

If you're interested, I would recommend The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup

u/sharpcowboy · 1 pointr/TrueReddit

I also recommend this book for those who are really interested in the subject.

From a review: " Shoup zeroes in on the reason for such problems: we assume that parking should be free. Shoup points out that if we decided that gasoline should be free, the result we would expect would be obvious: people would drive too much, shortages of gasoline would develop, fights would break out over scarce gas, and governments would go broke trying to pay for it all. Shoup shows that parking is no different. Providing free parking leads to overuse, shortages, and conflicts over parking. Cash-strapped local governments and neighborhoods lose out, too. Free parking is like a fertility drug for cars. Many people don't realize how much of the high price of housing is due to requirements by local governments that a certain number of parking spaces must be provided. These costs are paid by everyone, including those who don't own a car."

u/RVelts · 1 pointr/Austin

Parking is expensive. This book is a great read on that: http://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X

u/kettal · 1 pointr/canada

Actually, many transit agencies do charge pass holders for parking. Just like hospitals do.

If you want to learn more about why that's a good thing, feel free to read The High Cost of Free Parking

u/downstairsneighbor · 1 pointr/Seattle

There's a theory floating around that increasing the number of parking spaces in a neighborhood actually has a negative effect.

It's debatable, but seems to resonate a lot with people here.

u/danbrotherston · 1 pointr/kitchener

Do you do construction? Engineering? The only direction someone has their hands on the scale is towards cheaper. Just because you want it cheaper doesn't make it cheaper to build and operate.

Go read about just how much money is given to the cause of cheap and free parking: https://www.amazon.ca/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X

In the US at least (and Canada will match this), its BY FAR the biggest government program of any kind.

u/cfamethuselah · 1 pointr/Calgary

Sometimes it's good to provide info and let people come to their own conclusions. If you're interested in how parking policy shapes land-use, affordability and opportunity in cities here's a great read. I can lend you my copy if you like. https://www.amazon.ca/High-Cost-Free-Parking/dp/193236496X

u/oldbkenobi · 1 pointr/pittsburgh

You should check out this great book when you get a chance. We are all paying a lot for "free" parking, and those costs are often unfairly passed on to people who don't or can't drive to subsidize drivers.

u/heygorges · 1 pointr/asheville

For the wonks out there, check out the book "The High Cost of Free Parking." Made a lot waves when it came out in 2011.

u/ChristopherStefan · 1 pointr/SeattleWA

> If we start charging for parking everywhere in the city neighborhoods will see less traffic, but less people will be interested in going in to check out the stores/restaurants/events.

Or you know, maybe more people will walk/bike/take transit.

Parking is one of the largest subsidies to SOV drivers. Professor Donald Shoup lays it all out in The High Cost of Free Parking.

u/precordial_thump · 1 pointr/nyc

Hah. This article has the gall to cite Donald Shoup while complaining about taking away free on-street parking?

Perhaps they should have a read through The High Cost of Free Parking and then revisit this article.

u/lovela · 1 pointr/LosAngeles

Interesting point but I disagree.

You're citing Donald Shoup, the author of the paper I linked above. He did the full economic analysis and believes that we should eliminate parking minimums.

He also is very clear that we should charge appropriate prices for street parking.

Eliminating parking minimums is not a subsidy to property developers and property owners. Charging below-market fees for street parking is.

Since you cited Shoup as your primary evidence, in addition the the previously-linked article (http://shoup.bol.ucla.edu/Trouble.pdf), I'd also check out his book https://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X (paper here http://www.uctc.net/research/papers/351.pdf)

[Longer-term, I suspect that self-driving cars are going to make it so that we call cars using our phones. They'll actually park farther away from the denser areas where people live. In that case, I hope we don't cast huge parking lots into concrete when they could be built into things that have productive use.]

u/djrobstep · 1 pointr/melbourne

> It didn't spread out because cars take up room.

Yes it did. Building car parks and highways causes sprawl.

Read anything about the history and causes of suburban sprawl and you'll find out that this is exactly what happened.

You can tell that this is the case because in places like Amsterdam where they didn't do this, people generally don't own cars, and bike everywhere.

Read this for instance: https://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X

Or just watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odF4GSX1y3c

u/victornielsendane · 1 pointr/Denmark

Undskyld, det meste af det kommer fra mit urban economics fag på min udveksling.

Jeg remser ikke negative ting op om biler. Jeg remser ting op ved biler, som koster andre end bilisten penge, som bilisten ikke fuldt ud selv betaler for uden en skat på kørsel.

Man forsinker andre, fordi andre biler gør at du kommer langsommere frem (når der ikke er så mange har det ikke den store effekt). Jo flere biler der er, jo mere er der tendens til køer. Jeg har et powerpoint slide fra min undervisning. https://imgur.com/a/MxI7c og her https://imgur.com/a/zxGdu. For at opsummere: "congestion" fører til forlænget rejsetid (34 timer pr. pendler om året), spildt brændstof (2,2% af årligt forbrug), forhøjet CO2 udslip (18 mio tons/året), forurening er årsagen til 8.600 "premature" fødsler, hvor den største omkostning er den forlængede rejsetid, idet den rejsetid kunne have været bedre brugt på f.eks. arbejde.
I Toronto er prisen for trængsel estimeret til at være 3,3 milliarder dollars + 2,7 milliarder dollars fra mistet BNP fra tiden brugt i trafik i stedet for arbejde. http://www.metrolinx.com/en/regionalplanning/costsofcongestion/costs_congestion.aspx

Ja en benzinbil forurener både globalt og lokalt. En elbil forurener kun globalt og det afhænger af hvor effektivt og grøn ens energi produktion er. Derfor giver det mening at afgiften på den her front er lidt mindre for elbilen.

Risiko for uheld: Der sker biluheld. Det koster både i skader og sundhedsvæsenet. Skaderne kan spores tilbage til bilerne. Teknisk set hvis nogle biler er sikre end andre og derfor har en mindre risiko for uheld, så bør de have en mindre skat, men man skal også huske at når der bliver reklameret for at en bil er sikker, er den så sikker for chaufføren og passagererne eller alle andre? (nok mest chaufføren og passagererne).

Skade på vejene. Når biler - specielt tunge biler - bruger vejene, slider de dem - går specielt ud over broer. Med tiden kommer der huller og andre skader, som så kræver vejarbejde, som koster penge.

Ulemperne ved trængsel, forurening og biluheld er kort gjort op her i den meget berømte bog, Freakonomics, af Steven Levitt og Stephen Dubner: http://imgur.com/a/QWm4z - her bliver det faktisk understreget at forurening ikke er bilers største omkostning:

  • "The texas transportation institute estamtes theat in 2000 the 75 largest metropolitan areas experienced 3.6 billion vehicle hours of delay, resulting in 21.6 billion liters in wasted fuel and 67.5 billion dollars in lost productivity, or about 0.7% of the nation's GDP"

  • "Aaron Edlin and Pinar Mandic in a paper i was proud to publish in the Journal of Political Economy, argue convincingly that each extra driver raises the insurance cost of other drivers by about 2000 dollars. Their key point is that if my car is not there to crash into, maybe a crash never happens. They conclude that the appropriate tax would generate 220 billion dollars annually."

  • "If you can believe Wikipedia's entry on the carbon tax, the social cost of a ton of carbon put into the atmosphere is about 43 dollars. (Obviously there is a huge standard error to this number, bus let's just run with it.) If that number is right, then the gas tax needed to offset the global warming effect is about twelve cents per gallon. According to a National Academy og Sciences report, American motor vehicles burn about 160 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel each year. At twelve cents a gallon, that implies a 20 billion dollar global waming externality. So relative to reducing congestion and lowing the number of accidents, fighting global warming is a distant third in terms of reasons to raise the gas tax."

    Mere vejplads: Alle vejene er blevet bygget for bilister. Derfor giver det mening at bilister betaler prisen det har kostet af bygge vejene for at bruge dem på en måde der sikrer at det går lige op. En gang var vejene faktisk privatejede og man betalte en afgift for at køre på dem, men nu bliver det anset som et offentligt gode. Cliff Winston snakker her (dog kontroversielt blandt selv økonomer) om hvordan toge, lufthavne og veje burde være privatejede: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2013/10/winston_on_tran.html
    Andre økonomer ville mene at mange at problemerne ville kunne løses ved bare at give færre subsidier til veje, lufthavne og toge og samtidigt skabe betaling for vejene.

    Den her artikel forklarer noget af det: http://www.citylab.com/commute/2015/01/the-real-reason-us-gas-is-so-cheap-is-americans-dont-pay-the-true-cost-of-driving/384200/ - se skemaet over omkostningerne.

    Andet godt læseligt (ift. parkering):
    https://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X/ref=mt_paperback?_encoding=UTF8&me=
u/italianismus · 1 pointr/ottawa

There aren't really any places where lots could be built for cities. The best solution is to keep them off the roads and put them underneath the hospital buildings, even though that'll cost even more money to build.

In any case parking isn't a thing the city should be encouraging. This book makes a great case, but building parking is really expensive and already massively subsidized. It also encourages people to drive, and surface parking isn't just a blight on urban areas (inhospitable for people), but contributes significant to Urban Heat Island Effect).

u/iAmRoger · 1 pointr/TrueReddit

I guess that Mr Shoup was right!

u/maskdmirag · 1 pointr/LosAngeles

Yep, that's exactly the problem, there's a huge underlying problem that needs to be solved, but the benefits of solving it are very hard to prove.

Donald Shoup (as much as I hate giving a bruin credit) is doing really good work looking at the overall problem of parking, he literally wrote the book on it: http://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Parking-Updated-Edition/dp/193236496X

u/datosh · 1 pointr/gamedev

Well I bought this book and gonna work through this until next semester starts. I think I can start using wrapper and frameworks after I know what I'm using under the hood.
Makes the wrapper&frameworks more intuitive... at least for me. But thanks for the tipp. I'll look into the stuff after I red the book.

u/Finoli · 1 pointr/directx

If you're really serious about getting into 3D-programming with DirectX I recommend getting a good book. A quick search on Amazon will get you the most common ones.
As for online resources my favorite is braynzarsoft.

EDIT:
My favorite books on DirectX:

Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 11

Practical Rendering and Computation with Direct3D 11

Real-Time Rendering

u/FerricIrony · 1 pointr/computergraphics

Sure!
Adrian Courreges blog is great.
I especially recommend the Doom study.

Yeah, it's a nice casual read but if you're looking for a more technical introduction you really can't beat the Luna book. The project files take a bit of updating and I don't recommend using the effects framework (most engines roll their own) but other than that it's ideal for getting into the graphics side of the industry.

u/Tezza48 · 1 pointr/GraphicsProgramming

Look for Beginner OpenGL or DirectX11 tutorials, Follow them to a t, work from there.

I learned a little GL from some random tutorials and then by watching this series.

I first jumped into Graphics and got a real understanding of what was happeneing form this book Learning from a book is a really good idea, Video tutorials can have a number of bad practices.

Once you understand the basics then ask questions about Ambient Oclusion, LightMaps, Cubemaps, Reflection.... all maps, baking(map thing) and other stuff. I would say knowing C++ is a good idea however you can do this stuff in C# and Java as well asa number of other languages. Also, have a look at Makin Stuff Look Good In Unity to get a good intro to shaders without having to write a renderer from scratch.

u/karilex · 1 pointr/gamedev

First of all a short background of my past experiences.
I'm a fairly experienced programmer I've mostly dealt with stuff that is closer to the hardware (kernel/networking dev). Hence I have a good amount of experience with C and C++.

I've also got a good amount of knowledge in the field of mathematics (currently reading up on functional analysis and galois theory). So any maths prerequisites shouldn't be an issue.

I also know absolutely nothing about computer graphics, currently have a particularly poor knowledge of UX, have never created a game before, and know much less about programming in Windows than Linux (I have at most a vague idea of what a COM object is).

I'm interested in writing a game since I want to pick up gamedev as a hobby. I don't really care what type of game I end up writing since I see this project as being more of a learning experience than a fully fledged game. I'm also taking this project as an occasion to get more comfortable programming in Windows. Before I start coding I've got a couple of questions for the people of /r/gamedev since I don't want to pick up a whole bunch of negative habits or bite off more than I can chew and get discouraged.

  • What would be an adequate complexity for my first game? Should it definitely not be 3D? Would even a simple platformer be too complex?

  • I really like the idea of creating a game "from scratch" so I've started screwing around with directX and reading this book. However, I've come to realize that while this might teach me a lot about computer graphics, I won't actually be learning about game design concepts any time soon. What would be a good C++ library to get started on? I've heard mentions of SDL and allegro for example. Ideally I'd like something that I will actually use later on too.

  • What would be a good resource to learn said library?

  • A lot of the tutorials and books I've been looking at have been focused on how to get specific aspects of game programming done. For example, how to draw things on the screen and animate them using directX. At the other end of the spectrum there are resources that go into much more abstract concepts like what makes a game fun but assume a non-technical audience (e.g. extra credits). However I'm yet to find something focusing on the big picture at the programming level. How the code should be architectured (I imagine even simple 2d games go beyond having a whole bunch of code in one big while loop), best practices, common pitfalls, etc... Are there any resources I could look into that would give me the bigger picture of game development?

  • As mentioned above I am terrible when it comes to UX design since I haven't really worked on anything significant that has a GUI, other than for web apps. I'm working on improving that skill in a general sense but I wouldn't mind a few pointers that apply to games specifically. Are there any resources that would give me tips on how to make a game that looks and feels good.
u/ZigZauerFaucet · 1 pointr/gamedev

I assume googling already got you to the RasterTek tutorials.

Frank D. Luna's book is good, Introduction to 3d Game Programming with DirectX 11. While introductory it's fairly comprehensive of the pipeline and why (sometimes brief, but the main DX docs fill that in).

Beginning DirectX11 Game Programming, is a bit more newcomer friendly but a lot less comprehensive.

HLSL Development Cookbook is a reasonable fill-in for HLSL and shaders that you would actually use. It doesn't cover the nitty gritty like DX api calls, but does explain what you need to have your render states setup as each step of the way.

---

If you aren't already familiar with 11 then 12 is likely out of your league for the time being. DX10 began the move towards a lower-level API in comparison to DX9 and OpenGL.

u/RichieSams · 1 pointr/GraphicsProgramming

I highly recommend Frank Luna as well. His DX11 book is excellent. Some of the DirectX specific code is a bit outdated now, (for example fx files aren't a thing anymore and D3DX was killed off), but the graphics theory is still very good.

u/ClownCarnage · 1 pointr/gamedev

If you want to get into graphics, I would say use Frank Luna's DirectX 11 book or Joey de Vries' website LearnOpenGL.

EDIT: Phone's autocorrect...

u/lecadavredemort · 1 pointr/UniversityofReddit

I'd like to recommend another book, with a more psychologically oriented approach to urban and architectural design: A Pattern Language

u/swedeadguy · 1 pointr/gamedev

Read the book A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander. It is actually a book for architecture, but you can use allot of it in game design. Another good book is Level design in games by Phil Co.

u/elihu · 1 pointr/Guitar

This isn't guitar specific, but maybe something like this would be of interest to you: https://www.amazon.com/Harmonic-Experience-Harmony-Natural-Expression/dp/0892815604 (Though it does cover just intonation extensively, and while that's something I find very interesting, it's not really directly applicable to guitar, except as a way of understanding equal temperament.)

The music book that I wish someone would write is to take the general idea and structure of this amazing book: https://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Language-Buildings-Construction-Environmental/dp/0195019199, and apply it to music instead of architecture.

u/BlinkingWolf · 1 pointr/tipofmytongue

Found it! The Timeless Way Of Building was what I was looking for. Other interesting suggestions were A Pattern Language and The Design Of Everyday Things

SOLVED

u/kransBurger · 1 pointr/architecture

A real home is not just about the elevations or what it looks like.
I suggest reading something like Christophers Alexanders A Pattern Language

u/ChuckEye · 1 pointr/processing

A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander. It's not a programming book; it's not an art/design book per se. But if you read it, and you grok it, it may change the way you think about code (and design).

u/kirijo · 1 pointr/Edmonton

This book is great, even though it probably won't answer any of the questions you have.

/r/architecture/
Has a ton of Arch students and grads, I would post your question there and see the myriad of responses :)

u/peens_peens · 1 pointr/architecture

I'm currently in graduate school. Most of the textbooks I bought were for my technical classes like environmental technology or structures. I have used:

Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius. I used this in my theory class. It's a pretty neat book that offers classic principles of architecture.

The Ethical Function of Architecture This is another theory book that offers more contemporary architectural issues. I'm not the biggest fan of theoretical readings but it's not too bad.

Building Construction Illustrated by Francis Ching

Mechanical and Electrical Equipment for Buildings

Fundamentals of Building Construction: Materials and Methods

101 Things I Learned in Architecture School This is one I think every architecture student should own. Its very small and simple.

u/guilhermeduarte · 1 pointr/architecture

This little book might help you: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0262062666/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_qJ9WBbQPM764C

It's a one-sitting reading and shows some good design principles in a very short and effective way. Pay attention about the parti chapter.

Another tip is, look for references and solutions that you may think that will work for your job. Great architects was openly "copying" those that was the best at his time. There's no shame about it when it comes to learning. Obviously, you will not, for instance, copy the Villa Savoye and place it in your site, but, why not use those ribbon-shaped windows to raise the wideness of the view?

Hope this can help.

PS: Sorry for the broken English. Not my first language.

u/Gman777 · 1 pointr/architecture

I can't be THAT smart, because I can't tell for sure if your comment is sincere or you're being a smart-arse :)

I'm an architect, I know stuff, but can't possibly pretend to know everything in the field- it is vast, so you never stop learning.

There's a lot of good online resources if you just want to look at the subject of architecture/ design. Here are just a few for you to check out if you really are interested:

http://www.dezeen.com/

http://archidose.blogspot.com.au/

http://www.designboom.com/

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com.au/

http://www.ilikearchitecture.net/

http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/

http://inhabitat.com/

http://fuckyeahbrutalism.tumblr.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_architecture

http://www.architizer.com/blog/history-of-modern-architecture-through-movies/



Also, Some Great Books:

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Architecture-Critical-History-Edition/dp/0500203954

http://www.amazon.com/Towards-New-Architecture-Dover/dp/0486250237/ref=pd_sim_b_7

http://www.amazon.com/101-Things-Learned-Architecture-School/dp/0262062666/ref=pd_sim_b_5

u/djpolk93 · 1 pointr/architecture

[101 Things I Learned In Architecture School] (http://www.amazon.com/101-Things-Learned-Architecture-School/dp/0262062666)

Its a cheap ($10) book with a very basic intro to certain design principles that every aspiring architect should know. The book itself is very well designed and makes learning these principles fun and easy.

u/trastevere · 1 pointr/architecture

Rand's main character, Howard Roark, is modeled after Frank Lloyd Wright, and she used the design processes of the 40's as her model for how architecture was done. For that time period, I think it was a decent portrayal of the subject.

However, the Fountainhead suffers from two things: a completely idyllic worldview of architecture, and absolutely terrible writing. Rand describes a lot of the process as "Roark spent hours/days/weeks/months designing" without actually going over how it actually works. Design requirements, working with clients, design process, structural needs, user needs, iterative working, CAD/drafting, presentations, codes... all glossed over and every time Roark is challenged, he just blows it off. That doesn't happen at all in real life, unless you're Gehry or Zaha and even they had to work their whole lives up that point.

That being said, I'm very much a believer in the theory that everyone can be an architect, as long as they have a solid design process. Architects are well known for being smitten with non-architects designing buildings (unless it's another McMansion of course). Unfortunately, I'm not sure PolySci gives nearly a good enough design process. The amount of things you'd have to learn all while working on a thesis would be a tremendous effort that wouldn't happen if all you have is a fleeting fancy in the profession. Plus, you'll need to cultivate a portfolio... most schools won't accept you without having some kind of work sample.

Grad school may not be the place to pick up architecture if you're coming from a completely non-design related field. Plus, while the job situation with architecture is getting better, it's still one of the lowest employed/worst paid licensed professions in the world at the moment.

But hey - try designing something and see how you like it. Build a desk, or bookshelves, or a chair. If it's successful, you can incorporate it into a portfolio for your future application. Pick up 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School - it's an excellent vignette of the design process and can give you an insight to some of the quirks of architectural design. Take some graphic design or sculpture classes while you're still in school. There's lots of facets to design that you can do without needing to commit to something as heavy as architecture right away.

u/studentthinker · 1 pointr/atheism

A good wikipedia page on the square-cube law to start digging for various sources. It's such a solid part of maths and materials that most papers on it are probably filled with 'thou art' and so forth.

Again a wikipedia page, this time on fracture mechanics and, specifically the 'griffiths crack length'. This stuff was worked out after WW1 boats started splitting in half unexpectedly due to square portholes and access hatches rather than ones with rounded edges. This subject is so demonstrated we cover it in first-year engineering at uni.

A great pair of books on the subject that are both very informative AND fun to read rather than just dry academia are Structures; or why things don't fall down and The new science of strong materials; or why we don't fall through the flaw. I know those links are for amazon but hopefully you can find a copy in a library or something.

u/zen_arcade · 1 pointr/askscience

Civil engineering to shipbuilding: Structures and The new science of strong materials, by J.E. Gordon. These are incredibly enlightening.

Physics (also some chemistry and biology): It Must Be Beautiful: Great Equations of Modern Science is a collection of essays by great scientists - among others, it contains a very insightful discussion on the birth of the Schroedinger equation, which is rather different from the usual stories of cats in boxes, chicken crossing the road, gods playing dice, and the like.

Chemistry: The Elements: A Very Short Introduction, by Philip Ball.

Biochemistry: Chance and necessity, by Jacques Monod. Seems it's out of print, I guess my knowledge of the field is a bit out-of-date. There must be some other book out there that explains elegantly protein folding and enzymatic regulation, which are the base mechanisms of living matter.

u/groundhogmeat · 1 pointr/engineering

A distressingly-high ratio of pop psych nonsense suggestions in here. Sticking to engineering, one of my faves is Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down by JE Gordon (and The New Science of Strong Materials by the same author). Does a great job of qualitatively AND quantitatively explaining structures and materials.

u/Ozymandias_Reborn · 1 pointr/ChemicalEngineering

Let me hit you with a different angle. These aren't about distillation, but they will give you a good feel for what's on the line if you go into industry. It's hard to get your head around, but your title comes with a certain amount of people blindly trusting you, and so that responsibility has to be carried with the hard knowledge of just how fast and bad things can fail if you don't have your bases covered.

  • Normal Accidents - Living With High Risk Technologies, Perrow This is an absolutely fascinating look at the tendency toward failure in a whole host of industries. Written simply, and not too harshly long, I would recommend it as assigned reading to ANY engineer.
  • The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA, Vaughan A fascinating look at how production pressure, heirarchical secrecy, and overconfidence can lead to tragedy. This one is a bit longer, but is probably the most in-depth case study every performed on these topics.

    And as a small treat, I will leave a related quote taken from my third recommendation, which is much less ChemE specific but is still great, fun reading for anyone, not just engineers:
    Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down, Gordon

    "In the course of a long professional life spent, or mis-spent, in the study of the strength of materials and structures I have had cause to examine a lot of accidents, many of them fatal. I have been forced to the conclusion that very few accidents just 'happen' in a morally neutral way. Nine out of ten accidents are caused, not by more or less abstruse technical effects, but by old fashioned human sin - often verging on plane wickedness. Of course I do not mean the more gilded and juicy sins like deliberate murder, large-scale fraud or Sex. It is squalid sins like carelessness, idleness, won't-learn-and-don't-need-to-ask, you-can't-tell-me-anything-about-my-job, pride, jealousy and greed that kill people."

    - J.E.Gordon, Structures
u/mnemosyne-0002 · 1 pointr/kotakuinaction2

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u/yawninglemur · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

Steel Construction Manual

Or if you want less math and more math theory? https://www.amazon.com/Structures-Things-Dont-Fall-Down/dp/0306812835

u/aabbccaabbcc · 1 pointr/changemyview

> What you are trying to do is impose a moral scale, a ranking, on life that says that taking this life is moral but taking this one is not.

So, I'll try to get this straight. Please set me straight if I have any of this wrong.

You're asserting that in moral terms, ALL LIFE is equal, completely regardless of its nervous system, capacity to perceive the world, form social connections, experience emotion, or suffer. For example, a herd of cows should be given exactly the same ethical consideration as a leaf of spinach: none whatsoever. Right? Because humans have a moral mandate to kill. And since all nonhuman life is equally worthless in these ethical terms, according to our moral mandate, we are allowed to destroy as much life as we please in order to eat what we'd like. Deciding if I want to be responsible for the "death" of a few beans or some spinach, or be responsible for a lifetime of captivity ended by a violent death of a cow (not to mention all the "plant death" that was necessary to make it grow in the first place).

Except humans. We can't kill each other, because we can acknowledge rights for each other.

What would you say about very young children and or mentally handicapped humans who don't have the mental capacity to "respect and protect the rights of others?" If this is where rights come from, then obviously not all humans have rights. Or is there more to it than just that?

> The arbitrary categorization of one life as more valuable than another is not made for moral reasons. It cannot be because morality is binary. A choice is either moral or immoral.

Please cite any theory of morality or ethics at all that says that there is no gradient of morality. While you're at it, please cite any theory of morality or ethics at all that says that if you must kill something, then you're justified in killing anything you want.

Actually, if you could cite anything to support your position, instead of just asserting things, that would be great! In particular, I'd love to see any credible ethical argument that all nonhuman life should be treated exactly equally in ethical terms.

> If this theory is true then the pure herbivores of our species did not survive natural selection - the omnivores proved better adapted for survival.

So, we should take our ethical cues from natural selection, then? I thought you said earlier that we shouldn't.

Regarding "human efficiency," what do you think of the environmental destruction caused by animal agriculture? Or, if human efficiency is only measured on an individual scale, how is it affected by the mounting evidence that eating animals isn't so great? (each word is a distinct link.) What about the antibiotics issue? Please address this.

> Yes - if both animals and plants suffer and several lives have been given already to create the animal then the animal causes the least loss of life and the least suffering. How many plants do you have to slaughter and digest screaming to equal one animal?

You said earlier that plants can't scream. And can't suffer. And the answer, once more with feeling, is: about a 10:1 ratio! Remember? I linked those wikipedia articles for you! Did you read them?

Which reminds me, I've been careful to only cite things that are reasonably "impartial": news articles, PubMed, wikipedia, that sort of thing. Nothing from the Humane Society or anything like that, since I imagine that you'll probably just dismiss it. If you'd be willing to read those things seriously, then by all means let me know and I'll share a few. And if you wouldn't mind addressing some of the things that those linked articles address, I'd appreciate it.

I'll go back a couple posts of yours, if you don't mind, because I forgot to address this point:

> The animal would have eaten the plants regardless of your decision. By eating the animal you are not participating in the death or the potential suffering of the plants.

Yes you are! You've paid for the animal to be bred, raised, fed, and slaughtered. You are contributing to the demand for this process. Are you claiming that by supporting something financially is completely divorced from all ethical responsibility? Please explain this, since I don't understand this view.

> Farming an animal for food is not torture. Torturing an animal for the sake of seeing it suffer is morally wrong.

Well, if you're in America, more than 99% of the time it is. Is it permissible to torture an animal to eat it more cheaply?

Jonathan Safran Foer's book Eating Animals, by the way, is an excellent and very honest investigation of the ethics of eating meat. It's written from the perspective of someone who's oscillated between eating meat and not eating it for his life so far, and I hope you'll believe me when I say that it is absolutely not judgmental of those who do. There's no way around the fact that it's been a human tradition for a very long time, and there's a great deal of sentimentality around it, and this book approaches the subject with great intellectual and moral honesty. I hope you'll at least consider reading it, if you would like to, I'd even be happy to send you my copy in the mail (although I'd probably be unwilling to give out my address over the internet), and you can keep it after that. And if you're right about the ethics of it, you'll blast through it in a few days and come away completely unchanged, since your position is totally bulletproof. If there's no threat, all you have to lose is a few hours of reading time. And, if you don't want to read anything, he's given a couple brief interviews 1, 2, 3, 4 that you can watch in a few minutes (the longest is an hour).

And of course, since I'm suggesting some reading material for you (I hope you're actually reading those articles by the way... it's hard to tell, since you haven't address any of them except the ADA abstract, which you dismissed with an appeal to nature), it's only fair that if you recommend any books or articles or films to me at all, I solemnly swear to read (or watch) them with an open mind. I'll even get back to you about what I think!

I think it's extremely telling that the industry has fought so hard to pass laws against documenting abuse in their operations. Would you agree that given a choice between cheap meat that has been raised in torturous conditions, and expensive meat that was raised in a way to give the animal a good life while it was alive, one has a moral obligation to choose the one that caused less suffering? This, I expect, is in line with your moral mandate to kill. After all:

> Certainly limiting the amount of pain inflicted is a desirable choice.

Try this: go to your refrigerator, and look at the label for the animal flesh you already have in there. See what farm it's from, and look up a phone number. Give them a call, and pretend that you're interested in taking a tour of their facilities to see the conditions. Then, when you're at the farmer's market, find someone selling meat and ask if it would be possible to go see the farm sometime.

Look, I don't want to be hostile. Clearly we disagree on some very fundamental things (like the notion that suffering has anything at all to do with ethical decisions) but I want to be very clear that I'm not trying to pick a fight or belittle you in any way. I just find some (most, frankly) of your views baffling, heartless, and honestly, pretty terrifying. But honest discussion is the whole point of CMV, right? And, I'd like to encourage you again to cite anything to justify your assertion that plants and animals should be given exactly the same ethical consideration (none). And again, please cite anything at all to support the notion that the capacity to suffer is of no moral consequence.

Thanks! I'm looking forward to your reply. I've tried to be very clear about the points I'd like you to address, and hopefully I succeeded.

u/GraphCat · 1 pointr/vegan

I love Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.

As for cookbooks, this cookbook.

If you have an ice cream maker/plenty of free time, I love this for vegan ice cream

u/BigStroopwafel · 1 pointr/worldnews

There's a pretty good book on it by Jonathan Safran Foer :

https://www.amazon.com/Eating-Animals-Jonathan-Safran-Foer/dp/0316069884

u/ceart_ag_na_vegans · 1 pointr/MurderedByWords

“Perhaps in the back of our minds we already understand ... that something terribly wrong is happening. Our sustenance now comes from misery. We know that if someone offers to show us a film on how our meat is produced, it will be a horror film. We perhaps know more than we care to admit, keeping it down in the dark places of our memory-- disavowed. When we eat factory-farmed meat we live, literally, on tortured flesh. Increasingly, that tortured flesh is becoming our own.”

Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals

u/throwaway500k · 1 pointr/vegan
  1. I read Eating Animals, by Jonathan Saffron Foer and could not find a rational argument against veganism as the ethical choice given my access to alternatives to animal products. I was reading a whole lot of books on all sort of food-related topics, had no intention of going vegan or even vegetarian, but that was that. Went vegan the following day (July 4, 2011)
  2. My spouse is working on decreasing animal product use. He kind of tapered - he was avoiding red meat, then lacto-ovo-veg, now he's closer to 80% vegan with occasional LOV meals. He also found meat substitutes he likes so he can do burgers, tacos, and other foods that are comfort food to him. I don't really have much practical advice, I guess, except that meat substitutes / analogues are a perfectly reasonable option if those flavors/textures are significant to you.
  3. I'm boring. On a typical day I have oatmeal and coffee with soy milk for breakfast, some kind of grain plus frozen veggies and either beans of chopped up baked tofu for lunch (I make a big batch, portion it out, and freeze it ahead of time for the week), and tofu and some veggies for dinner. All boring, all easy, all tasty and inexpensive. For good recipes, I recommend checking out the post punk kitchen. Two of my favorite cookbooks are [http://smile.amazon.com/Mediterranean-Vegan-Kitchen-Donna-Klein/dp/1557883599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415407055&sr=8-1&keywords=mediterranean+vegan](The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen) and The Oh She Glows Cookbook.
u/dietbroccoli · 1 pointr/Fitness

If this topic interests you, I'd recommend this book.

u/_Loch_Ness_Monster__ · 1 pointr/veganbookclub
u/Durddy · 1 pointr/vegetarian

I actually became a Vegetarian a year ago Tomorrow all because of this book. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.
For me it was the environmental impact of the industry. It was an easy way to stand up for what I believe in.

u/dodli · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

How 'bout some Safran-Foer?

u/GravyRobber · 1 pointr/graphic_design

Megg's History of Graphic Design

and/or:

http://www.designishistory.com/

I think what you're getting at is that you want to contextualize contemporary design trends within a broader history. Either of these will help you immensely.

u/likeomgjess · 1 pointr/typography

Honestly, a good history of design book would be the route I would recommend going first.
This is one of my favorites. http://www.amazon.com/Meggs-History-Graphic-Design-Philip/dp/0471699020/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396721586&sr=1-9&keywords=history+of+design

After that I'd recommend learning your terminology as far as the different parts of letters goes. Once you have that down, moving to learning about points & picas will help a lot, especially if you want to get into designing grids and/or fonts. A lot of designers I know still don't understand those, and it gives me the edge every time.



One of my favorite books to keep around as far as reference goes is "Forms, Folds, and Sizes".
http://www.amazon.com/Forms-Folds-Sizes-Details-Designers/dp/1592530540/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396721691&sr=1-1&keywords=forms+folds+and+sizes

u/Mr_Rabbit · 1 pointr/typography

Hm. There aren't too many books that span graphic design history. It is rather extensive, as you can imagine. One that can give you a rather general overview is Megg's History of Graphic Design. Despite its Euro-centrism and other issues, it'll at least provide a general overview and let you highlight specific areas you might want to research further.

Another, though more limited in scope (or, should I say, focused) is The British Library Guide to Printing: History and Techniques and the better, but significantly more expensive / harder to find, Printing 1770 – 1970.

Anyway, some starting points for you.

u/charliehard · 1 pointr/typography
u/ElDumpo · 1 pointr/Design

There were a few books that were reccomended as staples in my Design degree.

History of Design

How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul

Making and Breaking the Grid

...and there was one caled 'Type' that I can't seem to remember the author of.

u/lordgold · 1 pointr/Design

Meggs' History of Graphic Design

http://www.amazon.com/Meggs-History-Graphic-Design-Philip/dp/0471699020/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250861554&sr=8-1

An incredibly interesting book, I bought it for use in my sophmore History of Graphic Design class last year, and still read it.

Also, another vote for Elements of Typographic Style. An incredible resource if you're at all interested in type.

u/archigrammar · 1 pointr/architecture

Don't look at other people's portfolios and be concerned, you are looking at work from people who have spent literally years studying and practicing a single subject, so are way more specialized than someone your age who has to take on a number of subjects and give them equal importance, not to mention its a subject that you haven't yet had the chance to try out. See it more as inspiration.

Its great that you've got some experience lined up! Very important to give it a try before you commit in case you outright hate it, university will be different from real life practice though. Before university be prepared for your work experience to feel like 'just a job' (but hopefully one that you can see yourself enjoying) after university you will have the knowledge and hopefully passion to see that job as an opportunity to create things in the world.

Don't worry about architectural knowledge before university, any prior knowledge will be useful but its a level playing field no-one will go in knowing what to expect, and having too much of a preconceived idea will probably be a bad thing. The easiest thing to do would be to just check a few blogs every now and then, just to look at things and see what you like, don't take it to seriously just see if there's any styles or designers that catch your eye. Try these:

Dezeen

DesignBoom

Architectural Review

If you really want a book to read this is probably the best 'my first architecture' book you could get its simple, but very informative.

As for drawing, it is important, you should practice whenever you can. You don't need to have picture perfect hand drawing skills but you need to learn to 'think' and 'describe' and 'observe' with your hand - its one of the key skills of an architect. Again, it doesn't have to be perfect but you need to be able to describe and understand texture and light and shadow and 3d objects in space. Sometimes a rough sketch with energy and emotion like this peter zumthor study can tell us more about the weight, feeling, texture, lightness or darkness of a space than perfect drawing, although perfect drawings do have their place as well.

Architecture has a lot in common with graphic design, the ordering principles, problem solving, composition etc. But graphic design tends to lack, both 3d dimensional work but also and importantly an emotive aspect. I would encourage you to take up art as an A-level, if thats not possible, don't worry but it would be good to find a short course where you could practice art away from the formal and practical constraints of pure graphic design. Hope that helps!

u/Maraudentium · 1 pointr/architecture

I'm taking the pre-architecture courses now, and I've recently graduated from a computer drafting program (AutoCAD and Revit with some Sketchup).

If I was going to start over again, I'd want to know how to draw. Definitely develop good line control (through contour, blind contour, and just line drawing exercises).

Model building is another important aspect. It's all about craft and getting familiar with the materials. You may end up using other materials but foamcore and basswood are the two go to materials in my classes.

For now, and my knowledge is limited, if you're going to learn any software, I'd focus more on Photoshop, Sketchup, and Rhino.

Helpful books would be Form, Space, and Order, Design Drawing and Drawing, A Creative Process all by Francis Ching.

I'd also study art and architectural history. Having a good knowledge base of different styles would help you in your own designs.

u/LNG · 0 pointsr/pics

Denial, denial, denial. It’s so sad that you can’t see that animals that are raised in torturous conditions, then MURDERED. just for their meat, which humans don’t NEED, is a terrible problem in our society. You just don’t want to see the truth. These animals deserve better than to be alive just to die for your lame, fat ass. Deep down, you know you’re wrong or maybe you’re just terribly stupid?

BTW - all meat starts rotting the second it dies, you idiot. And all factory farmed animals are tortured by horrible conditions. Read “Eating Animals” by Jonathan Safran Foer and if you’re still okay to eat meat after that, well then, you can’t be saved lol. By the way, it’s very rude to call people retards, don’t you have any manners? You seem to be such a sad little man, I hope you get help.

u/wumbotarian · 0 pointsr/Economics

I live in Philadelphia, and people seem to think that the homeless people are the people begging for money in front of 7/11s and on the corner. For the most part, these people choose to be actively homeless. They don't try to improve their lives. They either have addiction issues or mental issues (I see many homeless people here who clearly have mental disorders who need some kind of help).

I don't think I see actual homeless people described in the paper. Also, I don't see the need for Housing First objectives. I think getting rid of zoning laws and perhaps increasing Section 8 vouchers would do the trick. I am also skeptical of public housing initiatives, and all of my issues with them can actually be found in a non-economic book The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs.

u/Nub_Zur · 0 pointsr/philadelphia

https://www.amazon.com/Death-Life-Great-American-Cities/dp/067974195X Highways allowed companies to expand and not have to deal with cities and thier demands. US land use is more to blame as we cannot force people to live near a train station with zoning controls like they can in other countries. Jane Jacobs says this many times that highways allowed people to live far outside the cores of cities declined because of this. She argues that we should be forced to live on top of each other.

u/TedWashingtonsBelly · 0 pointsr/burlington

Recommended reading for individuals who don't actually know anything about parking policy: The High Cost of Free Parking
, Walkable City

u/roju · 0 pointsr/canada

Noise is a commons, and in order to prevent abuse, we usually allow government to regulate the use of commons. Limits on noise are perfectly reasonable, and in fact desirable.

Free parking is anything but - urban land is expensive. "Free parking" just means "subsidized by everyone else" parking. I don't see why someone too poor to own a motorbike/car should be subsidizing the parking of someone who can afford one.

u/greencoat2 · 0 pointsr/nashville

Free parking is literally one of the worst things ever to happen to cities.


The High Cost of Free Parking, Updated Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/193236496X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_saYUDb65AC042

u/robbysalz · 0 pointsr/Dallas

And actually, NO, I'm going to completely approve this.

Dallas needs more density and less parking surface lots. Areas with balanced density are areas with focused economic/business/life activity.

Read a book, bro

  • High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup

  • Walkable City by Jeff Speck

    You haven't answered the question of whether or not the DHA has addressed your issues. What's your motive for wanting to deny requests? What other issues are you envisioning? How can they be addressed?
u/glmory · 0 pointsr/LosAngeles


Parking is a low value use of land which discourages the growth of public transit. There is no good reason for LA to be mandating anyone build more parking than makes economic sense.

I refer you to this book for a good description of why the quest for too much free parking just makes cities worse places to live.

u/wh0wants2know · 0 pointsr/gamedev

any particular reason that you don't want to just learn how to code with DirectX 11? Go buy this book: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-3D-Game-Programming-DirectX/dp/1936420228/

u/minglemangle · -1 pointsr/web_design

yes, and/or Elam's http://www.amazon.com/Grid-Systems-Principles-Organizing-Design/dp/1568984650/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248720042&sr=8-1

Grid Systems

understanding and having good grid skills is pretty much foundational and essential.

u/thekbob · -1 pointsr/japan

How is posting the truth of the situation "heels dug in?" Everyone used public transportation or walking for almost all of human history and most nations do so except one really big standout; the USA.

I have an issue because I've read about how cars have changed the American landscape, from creating the idea of personal debt in America, or how they are an unfair cost burdening the lower class.

All without even talking about the terrible environmental impact they've had on our society. Cars are really, really bad and we should be having a hair on fire moment to change that now.

u/drfuzzphd · -1 pointsr/cincinnati
u/destenlee · -1 pointsr/horror

Maybe not what you are looking for, but I just read Eating Animals and it terrified me.

u/HowIWasteTime · -1 pointsr/Futurology

Haha, Chicago and DC are literally the two exceptions. The book Walkable City gets into the history. I'm jealous of you guys!

u/UnicornPony · -1 pointsr/webdev

I am also artistically challenged.

I recently read this book: http://www.amazon.com/Design-Hackers-Reverse-Engineering-Beauty/dp/1119998956/ref=sr_1_1 - while it did not cure me, it was good food for thought. It talks about web design - not CSS and JS.

For some reason a google search for "web design" gives me a ton of sites teaching me to do something in JS. That has very little to do with design I think.

u/kylemacmac · -3 pointsr/vancouver

Y'all might not want to realize the implications of this, but I strongly encourage you to read The High Cost of Free Parking.

u/sumerced · -4 pointsr/Minneapolis

This is a plagiarized title and most of the content is probably plagiarized too. https://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X