Name: Understanding Software
ISBN: 9781788628815

What Hacker News says

xupybdAug 2022

Lots or reading / listening.

I normally listen to an audiobook on the way to work. Most of these are now software development books. The more I listen to the more ideas I'm exposed to. There are so many great books out there. I was once told a story about a guy my old boss fired because he tried to implement something he read about in a book. It gave me the idea that I shouldn't trust books for programming learning. That was stupid of me. I don't think that was the point of the story.

Then there is the idea that you don't skip over anything. If you want to use a library and you find your self getting stuck, then go to the docs and learn everything you can about that library. Get a good deep understanding. I've found that while this costs time up front it saves lots of time in the long run. Not only does it save time but prevents interruptions. Once you understand something you don't have to stop and think as often. This makes development much faster.

The other thing I've found that helps is practicing focus time. Setting aside time where all your distractions are blocked. I use blocking tools to give me blocks of time that I can't even open my email.

Every book I've read has given me something to think about at least.

Recent books:

Domain Modeling Made Functional: Tackle Software Complexity with Domain-Driven Design and F# By: Scott Wlaschin

Get Programming with F# A guide for .NET developers By: Isaac Abraham

Learning How to Learn By: Tesia Marshik , The Great Courses

Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach By: Mark Richards , Neal Ford

Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention By: Johann Hari

Stein on Writing: A Master Editor Shares His Craft, Techniques, and Strategies By: Sol Stein

The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win 5th Anniversary Edition By: Gene Kim , Kevin Behr , George Spafford

Understanding Software: Max Kanat-Alexander on Simplicity, Coding, and How to Suck Less as a Programmer By: Max Kanat-Alexander

The Field Guide to Understanding 'Human Error' By: Sidney Dekker

Ultralearning: Accelerate Your Career, Master Hard Skills and Outsmart the Competition By: Scott H. Young

Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems By: Martin Kleppmann

Clean Architecture: A Craftsman's Guide to Software Structure and Design By: Robert C. Martin

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement - 30th Anniversary Edition By: Eliyahu M. Goldratt , Jeff Cox

Thinking, Fast and Slow By: Daniel Kahneman

The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide: How to Learn Programming Languages Quickly, Ace Your Programming Interview, and Land Your Software Developer Dream Job By: John Sonmez

The Pragmatic Programmer: 20th Anniversary Edition, 2nd Edition: Your Journey to Mastery By: David Thomas , Andrew Hunt

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atsaloliSep 2021

Sounds like "Understanding Software" by Max Kanat-Alexander.

https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Software-Kanat-Alexande...

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atsaloliMar 2021

I've found "Understanding Software" by Max Kanat-Alexander very helpful in improving the quality of my code.

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atsaloliJul 2018

For software development, I recommend "Understanding Software" by Max Kanat-Alexander

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075V9S57B

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atsaloliMay 2018

"Understanding Software" by Max Kanat-Alexander

Book review: https://www.infoq.com/news/2017/10/understanding-software-re...

Release announcement:https://www.codesimplicity.com/post/understanding-software/

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atsaloliMay 2018

More on "Understanding Software" by Max Kanat-Alexander and how it helped me:

Thanks to this book, I've started re-factoring code before adding new features, our code base is getting a little better every day (more maintainable) which reversed a trend, it was getting harder to add features, now it is easier; plus when I design now, my designs are cleaner and result in maintainable code.

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