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Books for Software Engineers in 2023

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Re: Books for Software Engineers in 2023

#14

Post by andrewf »

superfrank wrote: post #5

I read two of these last year and I'd recomend both, but I wanted to give my two cents on them. The Phoenix Project: I really enjoyed reading this, but it's told as a story about fictional characters working at a fictional company, which I didn't expect. Because of the way it's written, some other people I know who read it found it a bit too fluffy. Also, from what I've heard, it's pretty much an IT focused version o…

I thought The Goal was more generally applicable. Its core idea ("theory of constraints") is described in terms of a factory floor where different workstations have different throughputs/latencies/reliability; you could apply that to a diagram of a distributed system [0], CPU [1] or server [2].

Examples: [0] https://d1.awsstatic.com/architecture-diagrams/ArchitectureD... [1] https://chipsandcheese.com/2022/11/05/amds-zen-4-part-1-fron... [2] https://people.freebsd.org/~gallatin/talks/euro2021.pdf

Re: Books for Software Engineers in 2023

#15

Post by friedman23 »

> “Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time”

Isn't Google's software engineering culture kind of a joke right now? I've spoken to multiple ex-Googlers and they tell me they leave because everything moves at a snail's pace. From the outside looking in, it seems like absolutely nothing is being done in Google and I would not want to replicate their engineering culture in any company.

Please don't take this as flame bait and I'm open to discussion about what I'm missing. I feel like for people in the know, Google has a reputation for being a "retirement home".

Re: Books for Software Engineers in 2023

#18

Post by losteric »

I recommend "Developer Hegemony". Coming from a career in FAANG, it's helped put words to what bothers me about the power dynamics and management practices. The book also presents a picture of what a healthier and more empowered "software engineering" role/world could look like (one of my 2023 goals is making significant career moves in that direction)

Re: Books for Software Engineers in 2023

#19

Post by quartesixte »

andrewf wrote: post #14
superfrank wrote: post #5

I read two of these last year and I'd recomend both, but I wanted to give my two cents on them. The Phoenix Project: I really enjoyed reading this, but it's told as a story about fictional characters working at a fictional company, which I didn't expect. Because of the way it's written, some other people I know who read it found it a bit too fluffy. Also, from what I've heard, it's pretty much an IT focused version o…

I thought The Goal was more generally applicable. Its core idea ("theory of constraints") is described in terms of a factory floor where different workstations have different throughputs/latencies/reliability; you could apply that to a diagram of a distributed system [0], CPU [1] or server [2]. Examples: [0] https://d1.awsstatic.com/architecture-diagrams/ArchitectureD... [1] https://chipsandcheese.com/2022/11/05/amds…

The Goal is interestingly written as a work of narrative fiction. Which threw me off at the very start.

I feel like it would make a great movie a la The Big Short.

The academic paper in the appendix is super useful as well.

Re: Books for Software Engineers in 2023

#20

Post by glisom »

friedman23 wrote: post #15

> “Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time” Isn't Google's software engineering culture kind of a joke right now? I've spoken to multiple ex-Googlers and they tell me they leave because everything moves at a snail's pace. From the outside looking in, it seems like absolutely nothing is being done in Google and I would not want to replicate their engineering culture in any company. P…

Fair criticism, I have seen similar posts and articles about things inside there now. But the book is not so much about the current culture or setting now, but more on the authors experiences and what things have made the company successful long term from an engineering perspective. Good book to get insight on different topics or areas.
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