Recommend books that give you insight into other professions

Ex finance guy here - Liar's Poker for 1980s Wall Street, When Genius Failed for 1990s, More Money Than God for 2000s, Flash Boys for 2010s

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liar%27s_Poker

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Genius_Failed

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Money_Than_God

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Boys

obviously these do not represent all of finance but its a nice decade-by-decade recap of talking points, i figured i'd try to do it and was surprised how nicely it broke out

Not exactly what you asked for but something in a similar vein are profession-specific Reddit forms. I'm not sure they fully qualify as professions but I've found these two regularly odd and insightful:

- https://old.reddit.com/r/InstacartShoppers/

- https://old.reddit.com/r/McDonaldsEmployees/

I guess you could also add these to the list:

- https://old.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/

- https://old.reddit.com/r/TalesFromRetail/

I'm always looking out for curious little subreddits like these that give you a glimpse into a different way of living or working. If anyone has any other recommendations, please share.

Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs

https://www.amazon.com/Gig-Americans-Talk-About-Their/dp/060...

It's basically a series of interviews with people across various industries talking about their jobs. Not exactly "memoir"-style but more of an anthology.

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber

https://www.amazon.com/Bullshit-Jobs-Theory-David-Graeber/dp...

A personal favorite that I read alongside the first recommendation. Just puts a lot of things in perspective with respect to finding meaningful work.

Never split the difference : Chris Voss [0] & Start with No : Jim Camp [1] opened my eyes to tactics used by sales/"business" folks when they negotiate with me and provided some tips which help me in my own negotiations. Case in point: A car dealer mentioned to me casually that a car whose MRP is AUD 38800 would never be discounted below 34000. I took it as a psychological "anchor" that had to be explored and negotiated rather than agreed upon without discussion. Started with a random figure of 32349 and ended up with getting the car for 33500 ( given that it was my first negotiation, I think it's a win :-) )

Influence by Cialdini is a timeless classic that helps me appreciate the fascinating world of human psychology

[0] https://www.amazon.in/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Dep...

[1] https://www.amazon.in/Start-No-Negotiating-Tools-That/dp/060...

I found 'The Prize', a history of the development of the oil industry, by Daniel Yergin, to be fascinating.

Perhaps closer to your request, 'Kitchen Confidential' by Anthony Bourdain comes the closest to describing life in a restaurant kitchen in a very entertaining way. (Source: Was once a dishwasher and cook in a couple places.) If you like Bourdain, his friend, Michael Ruhlman has several books on being, and becoming, a chef.

1. How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success in Selling, Bettger

A good intro to sales, and a very good book on self-development.

2. When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management, Lowenstein

A story about LTCM, one of the early and most notorious "quant" hedge funds. A cheeky nod to intellectualism.

3. Liar's Poker, Lewis

Investment banking through a trader's eyes. Yes, the absurdity is only partly dramatized.

4. Pimp: The Story of My Life, Iceberg Slim

No pithy blurb can summarize this; read it if you want a look into human nature.

5. The Six-Month Fix: Adventures in Rescuing Failing Companies, Sutton

Written by a friend and a mentor; may he rest. Gives you a sobering account of what really goes behind the scenes of many companies, along with their management.

Apologies; I know this list isn't focused on more humbling professions like the examples you gave.

Working, by Studs Terkel

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_(Terkel_book)

Editing: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg

>>> Max Perkins was the editor of Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, F Scott Fitzgerald, and other famous 20th century writers. Great, great, book.

Bartending: Cosmopolitan by Toby Cecchini

>>> Very well-written memoir of a bartender in New York in the late 1980s. He invented the Cosmo in NYC while working at the Odeon — on a lark, without thinking much of it. The drink took off, but I think he's still a working bartender in NYC.

Cooking: Kitchen Confidential by Bourdain

Painting: Interviews with Francis Bacon by David Sylvester

Music: Meet me in the Bathroom by Lizzy Goodman

Tech: Chaos Monkeys by AGM

And seconding swyx's recommendations for all things Michael Lewis, who can spin a good yarn about any profession — whether it's baseball managers, junk bond salesmen, or high frequency traders, etc.

I've also picked up lots of good recommendations from this thread https://ask.metafilter.com/243036/Recommend-a-nonfiction-aut... (I, too, like "insidery" type business books. I'm currently reading "The Emperor of Scent" about the world of perfume and it's pretty good! Also looking forward to reading "Ninety Percent of Everything" about the shipping industry.)

Down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell is an excellent insight into the life of a parisian dishwasher in the 1920s. Its also a great exploration of the lives of the working class in that time period.

Just Kids by Patti Smith is a beautiful look into the life of a poet and artist.

The Right Stuff - Test Pilots

Arrowsmith - Sinclair Lewis - Medical Profession

McTeague - Frank Norris - Dentistry

Two Years Behind the Mast - Dana - Sailor in thr Merchant Marine

The Red and the Black - Stendahl - Catholic Clergy

The Centurions - Jean Larteguy - Infantry/Special Ops

I always suggest reading fiction, it is a good source for lot of incidental knowledge about various aspects of life.

Can anyone recommend books/novels on the English legal profession? Thanks.

Diary of a Very Bad Year: Confessions of an Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager is really entertaining and lucid if you are interested in a 'casual'(in tone) explanation of the global financial crisis.

It's a set of interviews with "n+1 magazine" from the course of the year later expanded and collated.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat By neurologist Oliver Sacks is a great book describing some of his very interesting cases. More importantly, his writing style is brilliant.

Sorry for this kind of answer, but for Russians I highly recommend the book "Три Еврея", Юрий Мухин. Despite the idiotic name "Three Jews", it's an incredible description of management of a huge steel plant (and life in general around it) in 1980s Soviet Union. Something I'd like to see in a thread like this.

For perspective on a veterinary surgeon's work and world, James Herriot wrote eight books , starting with, "If Only They Could Talk" in 1970. [0]

To learn what its like to start a non-profit/NGO working to help homeless people, prostitutes and addicts in the streets of Glasgow, Scotland, read "From Whitewashed Stairs to Heaven." The book tells the story of Maureen McKenna, cofounder of Open Door Trust Glasgow.[1]

Wendell Berry's written much about farming (among other things).

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Herriot

[1] https://www.christianfocus.com/products/855/from-whitewashed...

"Ninety Percent of Everything" is a great book about what it's like to work in container shipping.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety_Percent_of_Everything

Just one thing I would like to point out. Many of the suggestions I've seen here are about interesting books. These may give you insight into part of a profession, but I think we need to remember that these jobs also have boring parts or that the protagonist is exceptional. After all, most people won't read a book about an unremarkable person nor would someone write a book that includes all the boring bits. For example, most police/investigative work involves reading through papers, waiting, minor offenses, and other boring stuff that isn't sufficiently portrayed in media.

Uncommon Carriers https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OA64LQ "a collection of six excursions across the United States in various vehicles: coal train; barge-pushing towboat; a canoe on the Concord and Merrimack River, following John and Henry Thoreau's excursion in August, 1839; a UPS sorting station and truck; a five-axle, sixty-five foot, eighteen-wheel chemical tanker. " (quote from an Amazon review)

This is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay

Memoirs of a Doctor in the UK. Very funny at times and moving as well. Useful insights for outsiders into the medical profession and a light read. NHS based, but presumably relevant to other health systems and countries.

https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_Going_to_Hurt

Historical but Boys on the Bus by Timothy Crouse on old-style political journalism. (Although I imagine a lot is still true.) There's a lot about journalism, photojournalism, and so forth (perhaps unsurprisingly) although so much has changed in the past 10-20 years it probably isn't that relevant to those professions today.

The follow suggestions are all novels or non-fiction written as narratives

* English rural veterinarian novels - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Herriot

* Corporate security - The ISC2 CISSP course book https://www.amazon.com/Official-ISC-Guide-CISSP-CBK/dp/11194...

* Military - Catch 22 by Joseph Heller https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22

* Internal investigations - Airframe by Michael Chriton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airframe_(novel)

Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana is about a way of life long gone, but it is well worth reading. As for the more recent merchant marine, Christopher Buckley's Steaming to Bamboola is very funny, and I suppose fairly accurate. For forest rangers, Norman Maclean's novella "USFS 1919", collected in A River Runs Through It, gives a picture of how it was then.

August Fruge, longtime director of the University of California Press, wrote an excellent memoir, A Skeptic Among Scholars. There are many academic novels and memoirs, but I think very well of Alvin Kernan's In Plato's Cave. Also there is Herbert Simon's Models of My Life, which touches on academia and computing.

Here's a reply[0] to a question that asked about directory structure.

Ignore the programming/technology part.

Military books (such as "One Bullet Away" by Nathaniel Fick or "Generation Kill" by Evan Wright which was turned into a mini-series on HBO). Field manuals can be interesting and you can learn a lot from them.

Knot books.

"Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War" by Robert Gates is interesting.

"The Art of Intelligence", by Henry Crumpton.

"Diplomacy" by Henry Kissinger is an interesting read. It starts with the balance of power in Europe, raison d'état, Richelieu, "U.S. exceptionalism". It is well written.

- [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17593922

> what is it like to work on a container ship

You might like The Shipping Man by Matthew McCleery. It's fiction, but the author is in the shipping financing industry and the book is a fun way to learn about (a caricaturized version of) that world.

I'm an industrial engineer. The book that got me started on that path was Cheaper By the Dozen, which we listened to on cassette tape on most road trips >2 hours growing up. I was fascinated by the thought of taking a process or procedure and eliminating as much non-value add time as possible, which they did throughout their lives on things like tonsillectomies for their kids.

Some impactful books on the whole field include Factory Physics (focusing on material flow through a factory) and The Toyota Way (focusing on lean manufacturing).

My favorite genre as well. Found this one riveting and hilarious: Wireless Nation: The Frenzied Launch of the Cellular Revolution by James B Murray.

https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Nation-Frenzied-Cellular-Rev...

I feel like I understand nonfiction/business book writing and publishing much better after reading The Scribe Method. Super thorough step-by-step instruicions on creating a successful book.

Official free download: https://scribemedia.com/scribe-method-book/

Not exactly what you’re looking for, but Elements of Typographic Style is an excellent introduction to typography written with so much passion it makes you want to become a typographer.

We’re mostly programmers here, but The Soul of a New Machine describes the creation of a computer, which is not something people do a lot these days. Fascinating stuff

While it's about the origins of a now much changed industry, Earnest Gann's Fate is the Hunter is an astounding collection of experiences as a professional pilot during the early years of commercial flight. I ran an airline for years and my jaw hit the floor in several parts in this amazing book. Three thumbs up.

Save Me the Plums, a memoir by a former editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine, that chronicles the golden age of print media before the Internet turned the world of publishing upside down. https://www.amzn.com/081298238X

Dishwasher: One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States by Pete Jordan. Definitely a different and entertaining read.

Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs - This is a short anthology that covers various professions was collected in the 90s. Interesting quick views of different people's work etc.

For a bit of adventure, also Teddy Blue Abbot We Pointed Them North about the cattle drives of the late 19th Century, and Ivan Doig's In This House of Sky, about growing up as a sheep rancher's son in Montana, and about his father's upbringing and work.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

by Stephen King

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10569.On_Writing

Whispers: The Voices of Paranoia, Ronald K. Siegel

A collection of stories showing some of the ugly parts of being a psychopharmacologist, based on the author's own experiences.

I'm a software dev and run my own company but would love to run a japanese noodle restaurant one day (I'm caucasian haha). Any good recomdtns?

Check out “Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs”

It’s fascinating and covers a very wide range of professions. Sorta of like a more modern remake of Stud Terkel’s 1974 book “Working”

Nine pints by Rose George. While not entirely about leechers, a chapter is dedicated to the raising and using of leeches in modern medicine. Very fascinating.

"Snapshots from Hell" by Peter Robinson is a great description of an MBA, with some good descriptions about finance and consulting.

The Secret Barrister. A little bit UK-centric but a lot of what is mentioned is really true of most modern criminal justice systems.

"Elements of Poker" by Tommy Angelo

How to be better at Poker (and other parts of life) that has nothing to do with what cards you have.

"First Do No Harm" - A memoir from a brain surgeon.