Ask HN: Reading material on how to be a better software engineer?

A few books that I've found useful:

The Goal - Eli Goldratt - It is a novel about optimizing a factory, but it is immensely valuable in thinking through what are the actual constraints on your team's ability to deliver software and how do you fix it without making other things worse. The Phoenix Project is kind of a modern retelling, but I'd start with The Goal.

The Principles of Product Development Flow - Reinersten - Great for thinking deeply about how you deliver value through your system and the tradeoffs you are making in what you choose to focus on next. Once again it isn't specific to software, but very relevant.

The 5 Dysfunctions of Teams - Lencioni - Common team problems and what to do instead.

Influence: Science and Practice - Cialdini - How to get people into agreement so you can move forward--a skill that can be used for both good and evil.

The Little Schemer - Friedman and Felleisen - It is kind of hard to describe why this would be useful, but I felt it made me think more deeply about what it means to program a computer in ways that indirectly supported the topics you mentioned. Or maybe I just happened to work through it at a point in my life when I was growing in those other areas too.

joeriddles|3 years ago

The audiobook version of The Goal is the best audiobook I have listened to! Each character is voiced by someone else, which sometimes doesn’t work well for audiobooks, but in this case I think they knocked it out of the park. The main voice actor in particular is phenomenal. I have tried to figure out who voiced Alex, but all credits for the audiobook simply say “ensemble cast” or “unknown”.

rjha|3 years ago

+1 for "The Goal" - This book is so timeless!

bitsofawesome|3 years ago

The two most useful books I have read: Code Complete by Steve McConnell - Really covers how to be good at the craft of writing programs and constructing software. https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Microsoft-Programming-Steve-...

The Effective Engineer by Edmond Lau - Covers how to focus on what you work on based on the leverage it provides you. http://www.effectiveengineer.com/

ChrisMarshallNY|3 years ago

> Code Complete by Steve McConnell

+1. Also, Rapid Development, by McConnell[0]. I would say that it's even better than Code Complete.

It would be considered "quaint," these days, but Writing Solid Code[1], by Steve Maguire, was a seminal book in my education. I still use many of the techniques he mentioned.

And I cannot say enough about The Design of Everyday Things, by Don Norman[2]. That book changed my life. I would consider it required reading, for anyone that develops anything that will be used by other humans.

[0] https://www.microsoftpressstore.com/store/rapid-development-...

[1] https://writingsolidcode.com

[2] https://jnd.org/the-design-of-everyday-things-revised-and-ex...

TruffleLabs|3 years ago

The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, Frederick P. Brooks * still relevant re: people are the key to getting things done; understand how people work together.

https://www.abebooks.com/products/isbn/9780201006506

Aeolun|3 years ago

I thought this book was really fun to read, but it mostly reinforced what I already knew. The problem is my managers don’t, so having read the book doesn’t actually help in any way.

avg_dev|3 years ago

I really liked his other book The Design of Design as well. They go well together.

Breza|3 years ago

Reading this book is a terrific way to spend an afternoon. Every chapter has a lesson that's directly applicable today, despite its age.

rubicon33|3 years ago

Recommend this book, but honestly you don't need to read it:

Deep Work: Cal Newport

What you need to know from this book is that to write good software (both quality and quantity) you need to go deep. You need to fully absorb and understand the problem in your mind, BEFORE you begin writing code. And then, you need quiet undistracted time to map the thoughts in your mind, to code on paper.

This process of turning a mental model in your mind, into a well designed code model, takes more focus than you think (if you want to do it well). Give yourself a quiet room with no visual distractions. Just you, and your code. Set aside a few hours.

Most importantly of all - Remove the possibility in your mind, that a distraction could happen. I cannot emphasize this enough. Your mind will not go deep if, even on a subconscious level, you think a distraction could come. A text message, a spouse walking in, a co-worker asking a question, etc. These all need to be (as reasonably as possible) NOT possible so that your mind can go quiet, and you can take on the work.

ArcMex|3 years ago

I would have loved to see you talk about the part of the book that addresses working with others, as that seems topical to the OP.

Overall, it is also my recommendation, in that when you develop a good habit of churning out quality work, it enhances your contributions to the team.

pjmorris|3 years ago

'Becoming A Technical Leader', Gerald Weinberg. Jerry, working for IBM, designed the telemetry system NASA used to track early manned space flights and then spent a career helping organizations, teams, and people achieve their goals, both technical and personal. He wrote many books on the topics you mention, all of them worthwhile. I picked this one as a place to start.

'Making Things Happen', Scott Berkun. Berkun was a successful developer and product manager at Microsoft and the book captures his reflections and research on project management.

hardwaregeek|3 years ago

I’m currently reading Peopleware which is simultaneously very insightful and very obvious. It’s also a bit of a marker in time of how software development worked. I’d say a lot has improved with remote work, at least for some companies.

I found The Mom Test pretty helpful for honing a product mindset. I’ve fallen into the trap of writing code simply because I find it less daunting than talking to users. The Mom Test is a good reminder on priorities.

mooreds|3 years ago

Oh man, Peopleware was so good when I read it in the 2000s. You indicate that time has passed it by a bit? Any particulars you remember?

randomsearch|3 years ago

Everyone even thinking about creating a startup should read "The Mom Test" first.

rahimnathwani|3 years ago

Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track by Will Larson (https://staffeng.com/book)

Peopleware

kiernanmcgowan|3 years ago

Also check out his guides which are freely available. We’ve been using these as a way to answer the question “what does a staff eng do?” at clearbit.

https://staffeng.com/guides

pkoird|3 years ago

So I asked this same question to ChatGPT, here's its response. This thing really does have the potential to be a good recommendation tool for books/resources.

"Here are a few books that may be helpful for improving your skills as a software engineer:

"The Pragmatic Programmer" by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas: This book offers practical advice on a wide range of topics, including how to write clean and maintainable code, how to work effectively with others, and how to manage your time and priorities.

"Clean Code" by Robert C. Martin: This book focuses on the importance of writing code that is easy to read and understand, and provides specific guidance on how to write clean and maintainable code.

"Peopleware" by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister: This book discusses the human side of software development, including how to create effective teams and work environments, and how to avoid common pitfalls such as overwork and burnout.

"Agile Software Development" by Alistair Cockburn: This book provides an introduction to agile software development methodologies, which are designed to help teams deliver high-quality software quickly and efficiently.

In addition to these books, there are many excellent blog posts and online resources on these topics. Some websites that may be helpful include the Pragmatic Programmer blog, the Agile Alliance website, and the ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes journal.

Another helpful resource may be attending conferences and workshops on software engineering and related topics. These can provide opportunities to learn from experts in the field, network with other professionals, and stay up to date on the latest trends and best practices. Many conferences and workshops also offer certification programs, which can be a valuable way to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise to potential employers. Some well-known conferences in the software engineering field include the ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE), the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (CHI), and the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE). "

slowmovintarget|3 years ago

And yet, the first two explicitly fail the criteria of the OP.

The ACM has some interesting work, but is often impractical in day-to-day practice, unless your day-to-day involves constructing databases or researching generative algorithms (for example).

Rather than seeing this as great I see it as... superficial.

KunafaPizza|3 years ago

This answer scares me. Wow

kace91|3 years ago

How did you get that?

Any attempt I do at recommendations or summaries of books is met with a cookie cutter response that it can not do recommendations because it can't access the internet.

aerovistae|3 years ago

How do you go about asking it a question like this? I would like to ask it for recommendations in other genres LOL.

loloquwowndueo|3 years ago

I got a ton of value out of “Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams”. Even if you’re not a manager that can directly follow the advice, as an engineer it will provide great clues on how to ensure environment and team dynamics can greatly influence efficiency and chances of success.

Of course my all time favorite is The Mythical Man-Month. But that’s already mentioned elsewhere in this thread.

I haven’t read “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” but some of the concepts it talks about are also of interest (on how to ensure workers are motivated and I’m not talking about “the beatings will continue until morale improves” :) )

summertime42|3 years ago

I have all of these on my shelf. Fantastic reads.

* Extreme Programming Explained by Kent Beck

* Clean Code and The Clean Coder by Robert C. Martin

* Soft Skills by John Sonmez (1st edition)

* Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas

* Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael Feathers

* The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick Brooks

(Selfish plug) Additionally, I wrote my own book concerning the entire industry, from just starting out to becoming a self employed consultant when you get sick of fulltime work - all soft skills from my decade or so of the industry, as well - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B43V1JJW

cokeandpepsi|3 years ago

Robert C. Martin has ruined so many mid organizations it's kind of funny

charles_f|3 years ago

To the point of the question I would much more recommend "Clean Coder" by uncle bob, which mostly deals about the professional ethics of software development

cauthon|3 years ago

A Philosophy of Software Design by John Ousterhout is good reading

unknown|3 years ago

[deleted]

ArcMex|3 years ago

I’m always looking to improve my set of skills, so thank you for the thread and thank you for the responses- I have managed to pick up some recommendations.

My personal recommendation would be Deep Work by Cal Newport as it is my most recent read, having completed it just the day before yesterday.

I applied what I learned and discovered that I was able to meet deadlines much easier than before. I’m also in the process of applying deep focus techniques to my work weeks to ensure I have a tangible build or product every Friday. Could be a document, a repo, a feature, etc. So far so good. This past week I delivered a Design Spec document in record time.

Thanks again and take care.

mikehollinger|3 years ago

“The Effective Manager” by the people behind Manager Tools (a great podcast) is a really, really good view of this.

Re: Communication, this book starts there and builds upon that foundation. It’s targeted at line managers, but anyone in a leadership position can and will benefit. For example, I don’t do one-on-one’s with my team. I do “Project Management 1:1’s” or “Weekly project status updates.” I don’t always give feedback the way they prescribe (because the team doesn’t formally report to me). I do, however, go out of my way to say “Just to let you know, when you do X, Y happens.” And from the book, learned that there’s a 10:1 ratio of positive to negative feedback to strive for.

Side note: Manager Tools has a great podcast series that is arranged into a “map of the universe” [1] which shows a huge list of topics, and how to discuss everything from good or bad performance, dealing with various types of conflict, to even how to structure emails or how to address a personal scent issue (which I’ve actually used).

[1] https://www.manager-tools.com/map-of-the-universe

plugin-baby|3 years ago

> how to structure emails or how to address a personal scent issue (which I’ve actually used)

How did that play out?

jpgvm|3 years ago

People have recommended some excellent books.

I will advise something different, find a mentor.

The most important parts of actually -engineering- software, not bashing out code come from intuition and taste and these are best taught through a mentor.

If you can't find a mentor at your current company then consider getting involved in OSS, particularly in well engineered projects like Linux, PostgreSQL, Apache projects, etc. If you have the capacity for this it's one of the strongest ways to increase your capability and strengthen/widen your network which will help further your career in other ways.

Once you have found a mentor focus on being a good student. Learn how to ask the questions that will prompt insightful answers, the "why" rather than the "how". Especially try to learn what -not- to do. Experience doesn't always need to come first hand... getting burnt isn't necessary to understand not to touch hot stuff.

Not the answer you asked for but I think perhaps even more important than what you can learn from a book.

ldjkfkdsjnv|3 years ago

My personal opinion is reading about coding does nothing. Its like reading about math without doing the exercises. You need to work on good codebases, and have your code reviewed by people who are good.

Sakos|3 years ago

> reading about coding does nothing

> Its like reading about math without doing the exercises

But you do learn math from reading and then you practice it to improve your understanding with exercises. It's not an either or. It's both. You should be reading about software development as well as actively improving your code in practice. I don't think you'd get even half as far if you only did one of the two things.

This is such a bizarre point of view that I'm seeing increasingly. "Reading does nothing". Since when?

nouveaux|3 years ago

Obviously if you land in a perfect environment, then you won't need outside resources.

I am self taught in how to write good code by reading books, watching videos, and reading recommended open source code. I was never in an environment with other great coders who reviewed my code. HN was my guide in how to learn to write better code.

It is possible to be self taught at writing good code.

rerdavies|3 years ago

Good coding culture is a living and constantly evolving thing.

Code reviews will get you through the start of your career. But as an intermediate software developer, you should be reading and considering new paradigms and practices in relation to your own organizations' practices, and be willing and able to discuss and, if necessary, champion new ideas. And as a senior software developer, or development manager, you should be thinking about how to cultivate a healthy coding culture where those kinds of discussions can and do take place.

The way we code has changed dramatically since the dawn of the PC era, as has the way we manage software development. And it will continue to do so. Even as a junior programmer, you should be cultivating the habit of continuous professional development, seeking reliable sources of professional coding culture on the internet, and reading important new books as they become available.

It's like inventing new math instead of just doing it.

hardwaregeek|3 years ago

I don’t know why this is phrased as a dichotomy. You can work on a good codebase with good people and read books. You can also be in a less than ideal situation and at least read books. Unless these books are actively hurting you, which is pretty unlikely imo, it’s not a bad idea to read them.

paulryanrogers|3 years ago

My guess is it varies per person. Reading still helps spark some ideas for me, though without exercising what I've read it the learning doesn't stick.

Even better is learning from people better than me. Video tutorials can help too, especially where seeing output is important.

ericmcer|3 years ago

I think doing any one of those things will lead to being a weak dev, if you only read, only work on big code bases, only work on small projects, only work alone, only work with people, etc. you have room to grow.

iwsk|3 years ago

How do you do the math exercises without reading a book first? There's a back and forth process between theory and practice/exercise going on here.

garfieldnate|3 years ago

In that vein, I would love a recommendation on coding books that come with good exercises.

allenleee|3 years ago

SICP (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs)

https://web.mit.edu/6.001/6.037/sicp.pdf

pieterr|3 years ago

Camille Fournier - The Manager's Path

https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow...

https://www.elidedbranches.com/

eastbayjake|3 years ago

+1 - I lend my copy to new managers, it's been universally praised for helping people think about how they add value as they move from a 100% Individual Contributor role into helping others stay unblocked and productive

leetrout|3 years ago

A Philosophy of Software Design

https://web.stanford.edu/~ouster/cgi-bin/book.php

Righting Software

https://rightingsoftware.org/

squeegee_scream|3 years ago

Will Larson’s An Elegant Puzzle https://lethain.com/elegant-puzzle/. It is mostly or entirely taken from his blog so you can just read the blog for free but I find the book valuable

dxs|3 years ago

You can take a look at the following. Doesn't look like anyone else has mentioned this yet.

As with everything else, check it out, adopt what looks good, adapt it to your needs.

> Watts Humphrey: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watts_Humphrey

> Personal software process: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_software_process

> Team software process: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_software_process

> More at Libgen: http://libgen.rs/search.php?req=watts+humphrey&lg_topic=libg...

> More at PDF Drive: https://www.pdfdrive.com/search?q=watts+humphrey&pagecount=&...

antipaul|3 years ago

The Missing Readme” book seems right up your alley

https://nostarch.com/missing-readme

“The Missing README fills in that gap—a distillation of workplace lessons, best practices, and engineering fundamentals that the authors have taught rookie developers at top companies for more than a decade”

Get it just for the “Design Doc” template!

_dain_|3 years ago

seconding this, very high signal-noise ratio.

bwb|3 years ago

Michael Levine shared the best books about leading great software teams, this might be right up your alley: https://shepherd.com/best-books/if-you-want-to-lead-great-so...

And, John Sonmez wrote about great books for software developers on the soft skill size - https://shepherd.com/best-books/fun-for-software-developers

bilsbie|3 years ago

Anyone know if the old Joel on software essays are still around? Are they still relevant?

mooreds|3 years ago

I think they are (I put them in my response :) ). I still think about this one periodically: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/05/12/strategy-letter-i-...

I didn't see all the letters outlined in any location, so why not here:

https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/05/12/strategy-letter-i-...

https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/05/24/strategy-letter-ii...

https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/06/03/strategy-letter-ii...

https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/03/23/strategy-letter-iv...

https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/

https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2007/09/18/strategy-letter-vi...

Hard to beat his writing style.

ayewo|3 years ago

Mythical Man Month by Fred Brooks is pretty good. There is also the Design of Everyday Things (TDoET) by Don Norman.

Structured Design from 1975 by Larry L. Constantine and Ed Yourdon is another excellent book that I am currently reading now.

Multicomp|3 years ago

> converting asks to deliverables, managing expectations from management, enabling team members by opening communication channels across teams, time management

These all sound like David Allen's Getting Things Done, the art of stress free productivity.

> converting asks to deliverables

GTD teaches you to ask what the correct outcome is and what the next action item to get there is (and what those questions even mean) so your projects are always moving forward

> managing expectations from management

GTD talks about setting up project lists so you are current and keeping you current when you meet with management

>enabling team members by opening communication channels across teams

GTD teaches you how to brainstorm with the group and how to ensure everyone in a meeting knows what the next step to move the project forward is

>time management

GTD teaches you someodels to help you best know what your time landscape is and give you reminders of what tasks need to be when and where if known otherwise it has a model of helping set priorities based on contexts available to you

jshen|3 years ago

Become a better story teller and persuader, and learn how to make better decisions and manage risk. A few books that helped me in no particular order …

The Science of Storytelling - Will Storr

Influence - Robert Cialdini

Thinking Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman

Antifragile - Nassim Taleb

How Innovation Works - Natt Ridley

The One Thing You Need to Know - Marcus Buckingham

Team of Teams - General Stanley McChrystal

ilaksh|3 years ago

My suggestion is that besides reading books, you could try to build a startup. It could just be consulting on your own (or with ChatGPT or Fiverr/freelancing sites as your team). Then you will gain direct experience in a lot of those things.

Also here are a few ideas for managing scope, deliverables, expectations, time management. Structure things financially so that they are tied to relatively short iterations that require direct interaction with working software and between the engineers and the users and management at regular intervals. The communication with users AND management, payment, and deployment of working software at regular intervals should be strictly enforced. The project should not continue into the next iteration until all of those requirements are met for the current one.

ArcMex|3 years ago

I agree.

Soliciting for business and sustaining good relationships, in particular, will enrich one’s experience overall.

I’ve learned many lessons - everything from improving my craft to knowing when to drop a problematic client or project.

mooreds|3 years ago

Maybe I'm splitting hairs, but a startup != a consulting company to me. You'll learn valuable skills doing either, but they aren't the same.

Consulting is way way easier.

Signed, a former consultant and startup CTO.

la_fayette|3 years ago

Elicitating the real needs of customers is the most challenging part for me within a software development process. The concept of Domain Driven Design (book by Eric Evan) helped me a lot to decode the language of the customer and transform it into an object model.

chiefalchemist|3 years ago

"You're Not Listening" by Kate Murphy.

It's not at all software related but it will make you a better teammate, partner (i.e., client relationship), manager and/or leader.

Technology is the easy part. People, that's the difference between average and above.

tonto|3 years ago

"Software engineering at Google" (O'Reilley) has a lot of "team focused" advice also, it's overall pretty non-technical but generally a good read. Free to read online too https://abseil.io/resources/swe-book

mystickphoenix|3 years ago

A few things come to mind along with what's already been mentioned:

Assorted Non-Book Readings:

- https://randsinrepose.com/dont-skip-this/

- http://www.stilldrinking.org/programming-sucks

- https://sysadvent.blogspot.com/2019/12/day-21-being-kind-to-...

- https://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-t...

- https://grugbrain.dev/

- https://changelog.com/posts/rich-hickeys-greatest-hits

- https://github.com/papers-we-love/papers-we-love/blob/master...

- http://www.cs.unc.edu/techreports/86-020.pdf

Books:

- The Phoenix Project: Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford

- Deep Work: Cal Newport

- The Art of Leadership: Michael Lopp (Rands)

- Extreme Ownership: Jocko Willink and Leif Babin (once you get through the ho-rah stuff it's a fantastic read)

- Time Management for System Administrators: O'Reilly (fantastic for interrupt driven work)

- Elements of Clojure: Zachary Tellman (not just for Clojure devs)

LanternLight83|3 years ago

I checked out your other links because you included Programming Sucks; not because it's an amazing resource, but because my partner and I once nearly died of laughter listening to the audio book rendition at the bottom of a page. Grub doesn't disappoint either, but is still recent enough to be the wider HN consciousness.

jm1271|3 years ago

Software Estimation: Demystifying the dark art is an under-appreciated book in this area.

mooreds|3 years ago

Is that this book? https://books.google.com/books/about/Software_Estimation.htm...

cpitman|3 years ago

Given it is pretty short, easily one of the best investments I have made in time.

vl|3 years ago

Peopleware and Mythical Man-Month are fundamental to understanding larger software projects and teams.

They often state obvious things, but I didn’t guess them myself.

Mythical Man-Month also provides important historical perspective.

foobazgt|3 years ago

OP, I've been thinking about starting a column on those kinds of lines - generalized engineering advice. I have 20+ years of experience in the industry and have held both principal engineer and engineering director positions at S&P 500s. Does that hold your interest?

For everyone else, I think I've created an interesting backlog of topics, but I'd love any advice about additional topics that would interest folks, how to kickstart an initial audience, what platform to use, how to moderate without losing my mind, and anything else that'd be useful to know doing this kind of thing.

mooreds|3 years ago

> I'd love any advice about additional topics that would interest folks, how to kickstart an initial audience, what platform to use, how to moderate without losing my mind, and anything else that'd be useful to know doing this kind of thing.

What are your goals? Just to get your stuff read, help other folks be better engineers, to build a consulting business, to build a recruiting pipeline, something else?

Your goal affects any advice I'd give.

kyawzazaw|3 years ago

You might want to check this content creator on how they approach it.

https://youtube.com/@ALifeEngineered

Substack is a popular platform if you want to go longform writing route - see the pragmatic engineer

ArcMex|3 years ago

I’m interested.

My main topic of interest is how much has changed over time and perhaps what the next 20+ years hold. Such discussions can be eye opening when considering what direction to take, for example, when adopting frameworks and methodologies.

Looking forward to your content.

merolish|3 years ago

This list was posted a few months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32305997

vasco|3 years ago

I know you asked for books or blog posts, but I believe the best way is to read lots of code from the tools you use. Look into how your favorite libraries do things, for a start.

mooreds|3 years ago

How does that help with what the OP asked for? "What I’m seeking is reading material regarding how to manage project scope, be better team member, converting asks to deliverables, managing expectations from management, enabling team members by opening communication channels across teams, time management, etc."

I think reading code is great for learning more about code, but don't see how it helps with the other items on that list.

Solvitieg|3 years ago

I noticed nobody had mentioned any Youtubers. Surprisingly there are a few Youtubers who bring a ton of industry experience to their videos.

I found these channels to be helpful:

- Rahul Pandey (e.g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADWkkJtZna4)

- A life engineered (e.g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i5iFlP01mQ)

gandalfgreybeer|3 years ago

I think the main reason no one mentioned YouTubers is that OP was looking for reading material (e.g. books, blogs). These could be helpful though.

medler|3 years ago

The Unwritten Laws of Engineering by WJ King is a great book on the people-skills side of engineering and management. At ~60 pages it’s also mercifully short and to the point.

soheil|3 years ago

There are many books, articles, and other resources that can help you to become a better software engineer. Some popular choices include "Clean Code" by Robert C. Martin, "The Pragmatic Programmer" by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas, and "Code Complete" by Steve McConnell. These books provide practical advice and guidance on a range of topics, including design, testing, debugging, and refactoring.

astrange|3 years ago

Most of these books are so trivial that if you’re already a professional you should be surprised if you learn anything from them.

Except for the Bob Martin one, which you just shouldn’t read since he is not good at programming and his advice is bad.

ljf|3 years ago

I loved 'Joel on Software' - I got a heap from it (I was a PO but attempted to be as technically aware as possible).

Taught me so much about all the things you mentioned

turtledragonfly|3 years ago

This is more on the "managing lots of code" rather than the people side of things, but: John Lakos has a book called "Large-scale C++, volume I: Process and Architecture."

Even if you don't read the book, I think this talk he gave on it is a good watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NvRnkz6jVM

Noe2097|3 years ago

Try "Extreme Ownership".

It will give you concrete examples on how to broaden your scope out of just your individual contribution, by learning to care for all the rest, and pushing you to realize that to a large extent, the things you see as broken you can actually fix.

Even when they are not inside the codebase you are in charge of. Even if they aren't even on engineering side.

jdougan|3 years ago

"Death March", by Ed Yourdon. Most of the reccommended books In this thread are about trying to keep a project in a good place. This book is about what to do when it has already gone wrong. You can make a not terrible argument that much of the industry has gone to an all-death-march-all-the-time model. This book can help.

zb|3 years ago

I’m currently reading The Staff Engineer's Path by Tanya Reilly and it’s really good (so far). It’s a great thing to read at the point it sounds like you have reached, where programming a little better is no longer going to move the needle, even if you aren’t in a position to apply everything in it yet.

rglover|3 years ago

Systemantics is a fun read: https://www.amazon.com/SYSTEMANTICS-SYSTEMS-BIBLE-John-Gall-...

pkdpic|3 years ago

> Weaving the Web by Tim BL

> Of Ants and Dinosaurs by Liu Cixin

> The Unix O'Reilly Guide

All quick entertaining reads. All written by software engineers. All utterly useless for managing state in your React apps.

brnstz|3 years ago

Worse is Better: https://www.dreamsongs.com/RiseOfWorseIsBetter.html

unknown|3 years ago

[deleted]

smcleod|3 years ago

An absolute must from a "how to think" and cultural perspective is The Phoenix Project, many years on I still think back to this frequently.

unknown|3 years ago

[deleted]

mooreds|3 years ago

Hiya,

I'd consider these books/articles/podcasts:

* Secrets of Consulting by Gerald Weinberg: http://geraldmweinberg.com/Site/Consulting_Secrets.html Every problem is a people problem.

* Refactoring by Martin Fowler et. al: https://martinfowler.com/books/refactoring.html talks about how and why to refactor, as well as providing a nomenclature for the process.

* Code Complete by Steve McConnell. https://stevemcconnell.com/books/ A bit dated (the last version I could find was from 2004) but a great overview of the entire software process, from requirements to maintenance.

* The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brookes: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/mythical-man-month-the/... best practices about software development, written about a project from the 1960 and 1970s.

* The Joel On Software Strategy Letters: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/05/12/strategy-letter-i-... is the first one. All of them (I think there are five) are great.

* Letters to a New Developer: https://letterstoanewdeveloper.com/the-book/ Please note I wrote this, but I still think it does a good job of discussing the "soft skills" in an easily digestible format.

* Pragmatic Programmer by Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt: https://pragprog.com/titles/tpp20/the-pragmatic-programmer-2... Haven't read the revised 20th anniversary edition, but the first one opened my eyes to the craft of software.

* High Output Management by Andy Grove: https://bookshop.org/p/books/high-output-management-andrew-s... a great way to think about throughput

* The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim et. al: https://itrevolution.com/product/the-phoenix-project/ Fun novel(!) about applying lean management principles to software engineering.

* Radical Candor (haven't read, but it's been recommended): https://www.radicalcandor.com/ About communication.

* Good to Great by Jim Collins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_to_Great Focuses on what great companies bring to the table. Helps me evaluate where to work.

* Mastery Autonomy and Purpose: A great video about what people really want in work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzXXC4MZZnY

* https://www.manager-tools.com/podcasts a podcast about managing people. You didn't say you wanted to be a people manager, but knowing what managers think about will make you more effective in any org.

* Managing Humans by Michael Lopp: https://managinghumans.com/ The whole Rands site is work reading, but I enjoyed this book about how to manage teams and build software. See above.

* Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug: https://sensible.com/dont-make-me-think/ Easy ways to think about usability, focusing on webapps. Short and easy.

* Badass: Making Users Awesome, by Kathy Sierra: http://seriouspony.com/badass-users-the-book Will help you put yourself in the shoes of your users and think about how to build software they will love. Short and easy.