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

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

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.

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.

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” :) )

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