Hacker News Reader

Comment by bajsejohannes | Hacker News Reader

I finally read SICP half way through my career, but at that point it was too much old news to keep me interested, even if I recognized that it was a really well written book. So I actually stopped half way.

Does anyone know of a good summary or alternate text of all the knowledge in it?

View on HN

My advice: Take SICP, and use it to teach someone else.

There is a certain depth that comes from teaching which you won't get any other way. You'll discover things you never thought about.

That's even true if you're teaching little kids arithmetic, if you do it well. You'll discover structures in the multiplication table you've never thought about.

Look at SICP not just for the CS component but for the pedagogical and writing components too. Analyzing this sort of book is one of the best ways to become a great teacher and writer.

You can read the lambda papers, they very condensed and technical compared to SICP. Also, they cover more advanced topics.

Edit: Link - https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lambda_Papers

Try skipping straight to 4.1 this time http://sarabander.github.io/sicp/html/4_002e1.xhtml#g_t4_002...

This might be interesting as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Design_Programs

There is at least http://www.sicpdistilled.com

That's gooood. Thanks!

> too much old news to keep me interested

Did you try working the exercises? That was what kept me engaged with it.

"Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming" is considered the natural successor to SICP. I haven't tried it, but apparently it's a good deal harder.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com