I mostly read non-fiction: complex systems, technology, history, philosophy and business. Books are the most efficient way I know to access decades of distilled experience in a few hours.
Some books that have influenced how I think and work:
- Thinking in Systems — Donella Meadows. It changed how I think about software architecture and business processes.
- The Pragmatic Programmer — Hunt & Thomas. The engineer’s survival manual. I reread it every few years.
- Designing Data-Intensive Applications — Martin Kleppmann. The bible for anyone working with data at scale.
- Deep Work — Cal Newport. On concentration as a competitive advantage.
- Staff Engineer — Will Larson. On technical leadership without having to become a manager.
- The Phoenix Project — Kim, Behr & Spafford. DevOps explained as a novel. Surprisingly good.
- Sapiens — Yuval Noah Harari. To understand human systems before trying to automate them.
- Atomic Habits — James Clear. The compounded daily 1%. It applies to code, health and almost everything else.
If you have read something you think I would enjoy, contact me at [email protected]. I am always looking for the next good read.