6 books engineers should read

The post argues that books are worth reading because they go deeper than blogs, videos, or many courses, while avoiding the narrowness of papers. It recommends books that mix practical experience with academic research and that were written after long reflection on a field.

Reading notes

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• The author would buy six books for engineers on a team, with two aimed at everyone and four aimed at senior engineers or people who want to get there.
• How to Win Friends and Influence People is presented as useful for reducing unproductive debates with coworkers and avoiding fights, even if its advice can feel slimy at first.
• The Pragmatic Programmer is described as full of timeless, direct advice that validates lessons already learned and offers new ways to talk about them.
• Extreme Ownership is framed as a book about taking responsibility for outcomes, not just outputs, which separates people who can be delegated to from people who are only hands on keyboards.
• The Phoenix Project is described as a book that helps teams recognize broken processes and build buy-in for changes that prevent repeated death marches and failed deployments.
• Software Engineering at Google is called surprisingly practical and useful beyond FAANG scale, especially for the work engineers do around coding.
• Thinking in Bets is recommended for handling incomplete information, making the best possible decision, and staying unblocked even when the choice may be wrong.