Books
What I am reading, what I finished, and what is waiting on the shelf. Ratings are mine and not very scientific.
Currently reading1
A Philosophy of Software Design
John Ousterhout
Short, opinionated, and it disagrees with Clean Code in ways worth sitting with.
Finished4
Martin Kleppmann · Apr 2026
The chapter on replication lag reframed how I think about read replicas. I reread it before every schema change.
The Pragmatic Programmer
Hunt & Thomas · Jan 2026
Better as a second read, years in. Half of it is obvious until it is suddenly not.
The Soul of a New Machine
Tracy Kidder · Nov 2025
Not a technical book. The best thing I have read about what shipping under pressure does to people.
Ryan Singer · Aug 2025
Works well at six people. I am less sure it survives contact with sixty.
Up next1
Database Internals
Alex Petrov
Bought after the third time I guessed wrong about B-tree behaviour.