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

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101–110 of 134 posts

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

#101
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.

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

#102
post #2

Camille Fournier - The Manager's Path https://www.amazon.com/Managers-Path-Leaders-Navigating-Grow... https://www.elidedbranches.com/

+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

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

#103
post #65

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 co…

This answer scares me. Wow

It shouldn't. The fact that it recommended Clean Code goes to show it's literally aggregating a bunch of books that are commonly recommended. Clean Code is really not the way you want people writing code, especially judging by the code examples in the last half of the book.

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

#104

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

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.

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

#105

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.

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.

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

#106

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.

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.

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

#108
post #6
post #3

Quoted post unavailable.

About ⅓ of the homepage is already directly about ChatGPT, please let's not have every other submission's comment section dominated by it too...

Unfortunately for me ChatGPT agrees with you, so I’ll take my downvotes and concede that you and others were correct to suppress this comment thread:

“I agree, let's focus on discussing the topic at hand and not constantly bring up ChatGPT in every discussion. There are many other interesting and relevant topics to discuss. Let's keep the conversation diverse and engaging for everyone.”

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

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This answer scares me. Wow

It shouldn't. The fact that it recommended Clean Code goes to show it's literally aggregating a bunch of books that are commonly recommended. Clean Code is really not the way you want people writing code, especially judging by the code examples in the last half of the book.

Can you expand on why you feel that way? A few people I respect have told me they got a lot out of it, so I'm curious to hear what you think is wrong with it.

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

#110

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.

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.
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