Books

• Rebooting AI Sep 18, 2024

  The book accurately describes the problems with the current trend of AI development, problems from which large language models and tools like ChatGPT greatly suffer. Only the book was written before ChatGPT! It’s impressive how actual the book can be, and even more impressive is learning how these problems have been known for years now and the industry seems to just not care.

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• Elon Musk Feb 15, 2024 Great read as any biography from Walter Isaacson, it’s a massive volume but it was very enjoyable and fast to read. Love him or hate him, Musk is a very influential individual for our time, and the book unveiled for me several details about the events that made him “Elon”. I really appreciated the details around his working philosophy: the urgency, his “engineering first” attitude, his morbid attraction for problems that seem impossible to solve. Read book notes.
• What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture Jul 15, 2023

  I can’t recall another time when reading a book made me uncomfortable. The book is supposed to teach you how to set up a strong culture in your company but to do so it uses examples from: a controversial military leader, a feudal system well known for its rigid hierarchies, a perpetrator of multiple genocides and last but not least, a prison gang leader. I kinda see the idea behind the book, but the execution is terrible, peaking with the cringey quotes from rap songs at the beginning of each chapter. The book contains great stories and good insights but you have to dig, not sure it was worth it.

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• Atlas of AI Jul 10, 2023 This book is a masterpiece: the metaphor of the atlas, the many thorough notes, the data behind each chapter is just amazing. The author also shows fine technical skills that let her jump from politics to hardware and algorithms flawlessly as the narrative requires. This book is an eye-opener for those who think about modern AI as “software”, whereas the environmental and human costs are massive. Read book notes.
• Staff Engineer Jul 3, 2023

  I am a bit disappointed with this book, because compared to other titles, this is solely dedicated to the role of Staff Engineer and I was hoping it could go in depth and give more actionable suggestions. Turns out the only practical advices you can get out of it are in the first pages - it could’ve been a blog post. I wouldn’t recommend it.

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• User Story Mapping Nov 22, 2022

  This is the first product-management hands-on book I read, and for somebody starting from zero, I think it does a good job at setting the reader on the right path towards answering the question “How do you build a product that delights users?”. For me it’s a reference book - I started experimenting some techniques described in the first chapters with my team before finishing the book, and I keep going back to it as I get more experience on USM. Probably not a great book for a casual reading about product management, also because it tends to be repetitive.

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• If It's Smart, It's Vulnerable Nov 4, 2022

  This is a must read for your non-tech savvy audience: parents, kids, your friends who think they know how to navigate the Internet. It’s not very technical and can be easily understood with a minimum of familiarity with the modern devices that are normally available in our houses.

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• The Culture Map Mar 22, 2022 Must-read for anybody interacting with other cultures, whether it’s for work or not. I had several ah-ah! moments reading the book, it can be a life-saver if you struggle at times navigating people situations: very often it’s a cultural problem that you’re facing, and you can work around it if you know where it stems from. Can be used as a reference tool, getting to the part you need in the moment. Read book notes.
• The Art of Leadership Feb 18, 2022

  Very much like “The Manager’s Path”, this is another book you should keep on your desk and access randomly as you need it. Most of the “small things” target upper management but I recommend this book to line managers and individual contributors too as this is a good reference for what you should expect from your manager.

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• Accelerate Feb 3, 2022

  The book consists of two, very different parts, plus a case study from the ING bank. Part one is a must read explanation of how DevOps practices can massively impact the business in a positive way and why. The second part is an explanation of the science that supports the claims presented in Part two.

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• Resilient Management Oct 30, 2021

  I liked the fact that the book is short, goes straight to the point, contains mostly practical advices and methods to manage an engineering team (the target audience in my opinion is line managers). Similarly to “The Manager’s Path” by Camille Fournier, you can keep this book on your desk and use it whenever you need it, like a manual.

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• Turn the Ship Around! Aug 17, 2021

  I was skeptical at first because leadership and management style in the military are not really my cup of tea, but this is different: the author seems to have the same feelings, except he was a submarine commander in the US Navy.

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• Drive Oct 30, 2020

  I read this book because a colleague highly recommended it to me, but it took me a while to get into it. The basic concept of intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation is really easy to grasp, but at a first glance the book might seem repetitive. Well, it’s not, and the many details and nuances around the main concept are the real value proposition of this book.

  I collected plenty of highlights from the book that apply to both my work and personal experience, note for myself: go review them periodically!

  I don’t recommend picking this up as the traditional “management manual”, it doesn’t work like that :).

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• Peopleware Dec 1, 2019

  I believe this is the mother of all the management books I’ve read so far: I can trace back most of the concepts that nowadays are common in engineering management to a paragraph, or a simple quote from this book.

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• Team Geek Jul 11, 2013

  The authors keep saying a sort of mantra during the book: HRT, an acronym that stands for Humility, Respect and Trust. Apply this mantra and you will soon become an excellent team player, whatever your job is.

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