Books

3 sticky insights from 3 eng management books

Ever feel like your brain is blended and you can't even keep up with the things you're learning? Me too. But the good shit stays.

What I learned from Inspired

Products not projects. Outcomes not features. Iterate.

What I learned from Accelerate

Accelerate is the empirical research behind books such as The Phoenix/Unicorn Project and (parts of) Software Engineering at Google. I loved it.

The score takes care of itself

Less talking more doing

Your next mountain, pt2

3+1 quick book recommendations to help you think about next year

Why software projects fail

5 common themes

6 books engineers should read

Here are 6 books I'd buy every engineer who joins my team, if I ran a team. You might like 'em too.

The best engineering books get good 5 years into your career

The best engineering books aren't those you read at the start of your career. It's the ones you appreciate 5 years in.

Onboarding to a new team

People are starting to cheat in interviews using ChatGPT. It's obvious, doesn't work, and wouldn't even be cheating if you did it right!

What I learned from Do Hard Things

Do Hard Things is a recent book from an author of my favorite book about burnout (Peak Performance). It talks about why our traditional view of toughness is wrong.

Halfway there

Realizing I'm statistically halfway through life at 36. Time is the one thing you can't get more of

What I learned from Team Topologies

You can't escape Conway's Law. Might as well use it for good.

Insights for interviews from Kahneman's Noise

everything people say is bad about modern tech interviews is actually good 🤯

What I learned from Staff Engineer by Will Larson

Staff Engineer was one of the more impactful books I've read in recent months. Went through the audiobook soon after becoming tech lead so the timing was perfect.

The Passion Paradox

burnout doesn't work the way you think

What I learned from Software Engineering at Google

When I first picked up Software Engineering at Google I thought it was another one of those FAANG books full of lessons that make no sense at human scale. I was surprised, lessons apply to teams as small as 5.

Your career needs a vision

In his book, The Art of Science and Engineering, Richard Hamming says the key to a great career is vision. What does that really look like?

Serverless Handbook coming Mar 31st

Serverless is the future. New book coming out Mar 31st and it's looking bomb

Different medium, different mindset

Ever wondered what it's like to make a physical book? It ain't as easy as shipping code lemme tell ya 😅

My favorite lessons from Pragmatic Programmer

It Doesn't Have to be Crazy at Work – a review

What I learned from Sherry Walling's Keeping Your Sh*t Together

What I learned from Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century

What I learned from So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport

What I learned from Cal Newport's Deep Work

What I learned from Amanda Palmer's The Art of Asking

What I learned from Kathy Sierra's Badass

What I learned from Viktor E. Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning

Why geeks think girls don't like them