Reading
Books
Books I've read and recommend — fiction, non-fiction, and everything that's shaped how I think about engineering and life.
Designing Data-Intensive Applications
Martin Kleppmann
The single best book on distributed systems. Required reading for any senior engineer. I've re-read it three times.
Thinking in Systems
Donella H. Meadows
Changed how I think about everything — not just software. The mental models here apply from code architecture to organizations.
A Philosophy of Software Design
John Ousterhout
The best book on software complexity I've read. Short, dense, and directly applicable. Every chapter changed how I write code.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Ben Horowitz
Honest about the struggles of running a company in a way most startup books aren't. Particularly good on layoffs and hard decisions.
The Pragmatic Programmer
David Thomas & Andrew Hunt
Timeless advice that still holds 25 years later. Not about any specific technology — about how to think as a developer.
Sapiens
Yuval Noah Harari
Gave me a completely different lens on human society and history. Highly recommended regardless of field.
Staff Engineer
Will Larson
The best guide to the Principal/Staff engineer role. Helped me understand what the job actually is versus what people think it is.
The Name of the Wind
Patrick Rothfuss
The best fantasy novel I've ever read. The prose is extraordinary. I think about it often.