7 books that changed me the most as a software engineer

Books are one of the best ways to grow as a software engineer.

They give you actionable takeaways based on decades of knowledge and experience.

This article goes into 7 categories of books valuable for software engineers and top 1.

1. Writing & communication

2. Software design

3. Challenging conversations

4. Relationships

5. Engineering soft skills

6. Productivity

7. Engineering Management

⚠️ One big disclaimer before we jump in: Reading these books are great for exposure to topics and learning new ways of doing things. But it’s important to put what you learn into practice.

There are many links in the article, but don’t feel overwhelmed. Feel free to just pick a few that resonate or save them for later. I haven’t had a chance to dive into all of them either.

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1) Writing & communication

Smart Brevity by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz

What you get: Frameworks and practical tips for being more concise in writing, presentations, and conversations.

Here are some of my favorite takeaways:

• Delete! Before hitting “send”, try to delete even 50% if you can.

• Use BLUF (Bottom line up front). Give the main takeaway first. Context after.

• Make the "why" clear. You need to tell your reader why they should read the rest.

This book transformed the way I write, communicate, and present. I attribute it to a lot of the newsletter growth to 28k+ subscribers.

Others I recommend or have heard great things about:

• On writing well

• Simply said: Communicating at work and beyond

2) Software design

A Philosophy of Software Design by John Ousterhout

What you get: You’ll get are a set of principles that help you understand how to structure your code better. The set of principles are a different way of thinking about it than Clean Code though.

One concept is “deep vs shallow modules.” Deep modules have a lot of functionality behind a simple interface (good). Shallow modules have very little logic behind an interface (bad). Shallow modules are often not worth abstracting.

Others I recommend or have heard great things about:

• Domain-driven design

• TBD - Any other good suggestions here?
  

3) Challenging conversations

Crucial Conversations by Joseph Grenney & Kerry Patterson

What you get: Frameworks for approaching challenging & important conversations, like ones with your manager, partner, or coworkers.

The biggest takeway I got is to seek for ways both of you can win. Not you or the other person. Both. Find a mutual purpose and frame the conversation and goal toward that. I wrote an article on this awhile back.

Others I recommend or have heard great things about:

• Crucial Accountability: Tools for resolving violated expectations, broken commitments, and bad Behavior

• Nonviolent communication: Life-changing tools for healthy relationships
  

4) Relationships

How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie

What you get: Actionable advice and stories on how to be more likeable, build relationships, and get people on your side when you want to influence change.

This was the first book I read before going into college 7 years ago and I’m so glad I did. There were a ton of great lessons in there. The one I love the most is talking in terms of the other person’s interests. I did a whole article on this last week. Check it out here to learn to do this effectively.

Others I recommend or have heard great things about:

• Connect: Building exceptional relationships with colleagues, friends, and family

• How to talk to anyone: 92 little tricks for big success in relationships
  

5) Engineering guidebooks

Engineer’s survival guide by Merih Taze

What you get: A wealth of career lessons tuned specifically to software engineers—how to say no, how to get buy-in for your ideas, how to handle disagreements, what to not speak with your manager about, how to lead projects, and more.

My favorite takeaway from this book is to get buy-in for your proposal individually with people before the group discussion. This ensures you address the major concerns that would get brought up in the group and have a majority already before going into the group discussion. I’ve seen this lead to very quick sign-offs ✅ when it gets to the group setting.

Others I recommend or have heard great things about:

• The Coding Career Handbook

• The Software Engineer's Guidebook: Navigating senior, tech lead, and staff engineer positions at tech companies and startups - Recently released by

  Gergely Orosz
  of
  The Pragmatic Engineer
  
  

6) Productivity

The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey

What you get: A book full of ways to improve your productivity, backed by research and interesting stories.

One of the lessons I loved from the book is to let your mind wander for 5-15 minutes per day. When you do that, you’ll find so many ideas come to you, maybe even solutions to problems you are currently stuck on too. A great way to do this is to incorporate a short walk into your day.

Others I recommend or have heard great things about:

• Make time

• Getting things done
  

7) Engineering Management

The Manager’s Path by Camille Fournier

What you get: Learn about what it takes to grow into a management role, what the things your manager needs to think about, and how to become a stronger leader in your team without authority.

It’s hard to give one main takeaway, but I really liked the sections on project management, estimates, and limiting the uncertainty exposed to your team as a tech lead. There’s a lot of actionable takeaways.

Others I recommend or have heard great things about:

• Becoming an effective Software Engineering Manager by

  James Stanier
  of
  The Engineering Manager

• Making of a manager by

  Julie Zhuo
  of
  The Looking Glass
  
  

Recommended by senior engineering leaders

Last week, I spoke with senior engineering leaders who gave their presentations at the Plato Elevate Conference.

Me with Kent Wills at the Plato Elevate Conference

I asked them all one question:

“What is one book that changed the way you work or live your life?”

These are the books along with who recommended them.

1. Orbiting the giant hairball - Sushma (Sue) Nallapeta (CTO at Trusted Health)

2. Drive: The surprising truth of what motivates us - Lawrence Bruhmuller (VP of Engineering at Great Expectations)

3. Give and take: Why helping others drives our success - Bruce Wang (Director of Eng at Netflix) and Shravan Sogani (VP of Engineering at Clari)

4. Switch: How to change things when change is hard - Catherine Miller (CTO at Flatiron Health)

5. How will you measure your life - Vlad Cretu (VP of Engineering at Sentry)

6. The first 90 days - Andrew McVeigh (Chief Architect at Suvoda)

7. How to win friends and influence people - Michael Galloway (Director of Engineering at Hashicorp)

8. Think Again - Sridhar Ramakrishnan (Director of Engineering at Slack)

9. Deep Work - Tanner Johnson (Engineering Manager at Notion)

10. The Hard Thing About Hard Things - Swapna Savant (Senior Director of Engineering at Headspace)

11. Engineering Executive & Will Larson - Javier Lopez (Senior Director of Engineering at Carta)

12. Lean Startup - Wade Choules (Senior VP of Engineering at Digicert)

13. Getting Things Done - Kent Wills (Director of Engineering at Yelp)

I added many of these to my reading list. I’m excited to check them out and share learnings with you all throughout future articles.

There are also many other books I didn’t mention in this article which are in my “Continuous growth in tech: 50+ resources I swear by as a Senior SWE” article.

📣 Shout-outs of the week

• Strategy, not self-expression: How to decide what to say when giving feedback on

  Wes Kao's Newsletter

• Yangshun Tay (Ex Meta Staff Eng) built GreatFrontend which looks like a fantastic interview prep tool for frontend engineers.

• Theo’s video on top portfolio websites is a good save for when you want to upgrade your portfolio.

• I was on Apple Podcasts this week! Check out the episode I did with Alan Stein here on career progression, interviews, and soft vs hard skills. Or check the YouTube video here.

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As always, thank you for reading and for the growth to 28k+ subscribers.

- Jordan

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