Ask HN: Top 10 Timeless Software Books That ChangedLife as Software Engineer?

http://www.gotw.ca/publications/mill02.htm>

PS: plus anything by C++ guru Scott Meyers.

Watching Bob Martin's talks, he just likes ranting about computers and doesn't give actionable advice. However, he was one of the first "tech" authors I was exposed to, so I guess the the book itself is good for marketing. Maybe it's accessible enough for beginners. But now the book is certainly worthless as a reference or refresher to me.

In general, we should not be using HN with LLM copy. However, I can suggest a technique for you to help you accelerate your effort towards a book and the "hard part" of getting a professional editor and publisher.

Using GPT-4, which has a synthesized 'understanding' from reading endless reviews of such well known material ...

1. Provide the list of books as recapped in the comments below, with the prompt:

Create a list of the top 3 principles or takeaways from each of the 13 books. List only the principles, not the books they are from.

You should get about 35 - 38 principles in a list numbered 1 - 36 or so.

2. Group them with a prompt like:

What 5 overall themes can these 38 principles be combined into?

You should get five buckets with an explanation of each bucket.

3. If anything is misbucketed, tell it the bucket changes you want, for example:

Version Control should come with Testing and Maintenance. Data Management and Scalability go together better.

4. Now put the 40 principles into the buckets:

Using these 5 themes and their explanations as sections and intros, organize the relevant items from the 36 principles as bullets under each of the 5 themes.

You should end up with 5 solid book sections and enough bullets you can see how to break into 2 - 3 chapters per section of 2 - 3 good topics each.

(I'm not copy pasting an output here, but results from the prompt recipe above pass a first draft sniff test.)

5. Pick two or three of those you, personally, can write about in your own voice not using GPT-4, and without referencing source material, and write a first draft. Do not use an LLM.

The point here is to let your own view and originality and voice shine, using the material you are most confident about, to "sell" an editor that you are expert enough for the whole book

6. With this outline and sample short chapters, submit a book proposal to publishers, who, if accepting, will have early feedback that will help you have less rework, and will also have an signing bonus and/or royalties advance for you to support you while you write.