Episode · The Peterman Pod · 2026-05-11
Ryan Peterman & David J Malan: books mentioned on The Peterman Pod
Harvard Professor: CS50, What Matters More Than CS, Lecturing Well | David J Malan
David Malan is a Harvard professor known for turning CS50 into a popular online computer science course. We discussed the story behind CS50, how to lecture well, and how AI is changing CS education including in cheating/academic dishonesty.
David J Malan recommended The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, How Computers Work by Roger Young, How the Internet Works by Preston Gralla, Hacker's Delight by Henry S. Warren, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cooking—for Guys by Tod Dimmick.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is a beloved comedic science fiction classic that satirizes bureaucracy, existentialism, and the absurdities of the universe.
Recommended“My favorite book is Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and I think everyone should read that or play the terminal based video game that existed when I was growing up of it.”
Where to get it
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How Computers Work
How Computers Work by Roger Young is a brightly colored, highly accessible, and picturesque technology book designed to explain foundational computing concepts to a broad audience.
Recommended“That said over the years and to this day some of my favorite tech books even though they're increasingly outdated are this brilliantly colorful picturesque easy to understand and accessible book called how computers work which we used in that course I first taught in 1999”
Where to get it
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How the Internet Works
How the Internet Works by Preston Gralla is an accessible, visually driven technology book that explains the fundamental infrastructure and mechanisms of the global network to general readers.
Recommended“That said over the years and to this day some of my favorite tech books even though they're increasingly outdated are this brilliantly colorful picturesque easy to understand and accessible book called how computers work which we used in that course I first taught in 1999 and how the internet works”
Where to get it
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Hacker's Delight
Hacker's Delight by Henry S.
Recommended“More arcanely there's a book that we still recommend to students unofficially or if they really want to go pursue something more arcane in C called the Hacker's Delight which is this wonderful hard cover book that just has really neat neat bit trickery and low level hacks”
Where to get it
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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cooking—for Guys
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cooking—for Guys by Tod Dimmick is a practical culinary manual designed to teach fundamental cooking skills to an extremely broad and novice audience.
Recommended“I think for some time we might have recommended one of the complete idiots guides or something like that, which doesn't have the best somatics, but the reality is they are by design written for a very broad, accessible audience”
Where to get it
