How many studies of code have been done that only cover cutting new code? What happens to code across time? What are the trade offs between easy to maintain and easy to update/upgrade.
This isn't a book you'll glean direct practical tidbits out of, an introduction to not only functional programming but how to think in a paradigm outside the usual way C*/Python/Ruby/Java/etc... are coded.
Even if you wind up never working in Scheme or any other primarily functional language, the tactics and thought processes you'll learn here will apply to any currently-evolving language to a greater or lesser degree. You'll be able to map your thought process into the paradigm that works best for your current situation and not just be forced into a limited set of idioms that causes unnecessary boilerplate and clunky code mangling.
This book gives a great insight about immutable and mutable state (with pros and cons), typisation, FP, OOP, and many other things in a very beginner-friendly manner
While knowledge of a variety of hammers is useful - the identification of antipatterns is probably more useful in developing more agile and flexible code
To actually get any benefit out of this series, you actually have to read it and work through the examples. This takes serious effort, far more than most programmers will put into a not-directly-practical book.
An excellent overview of how the mind works, and effective techniques for problem solving and learning complicated things. As entertaining as it is informative.
The chapters are relatively short and digestible essays and short stories. The problem: there are 333 of them. On paper, this would take volumes, but this is an ebook. You'll get a lot out of it long before you finish though.
Programmers seem to love this book. The whole reason I read it was that my professors referenced it all the time in college, and I see references to it all the time when looking up how to use this, that, or the other new tool I've been learning to use.
Quote from the book: "Reading, like unaided discovery, is learning from an absent teacher. We can only do that successfully if we know how." - chapter 2 The Levels of Reading.