If you're a senior IC engineer
For senior engineers debating whether the staff-plus IC track is real and how to grow on it. Read in this order: craft, then design, then career, then career-in-context.
- 01
A Philosophy of Software Design
PickJohn Ousterhout · 2018
The book that taught a generation of senior engineers a new vocabulary for 'why does this code feel bad?'
Read if you are a senior or staff engineer formalizing your taste in code review.
framework<200pintermediate - 02
Designing Data-Intensive Applications
PickMartin Kleppmann · 2017
The single textbook every backend engineer should own. Survives every fashionable database wave.
Read if you design or operate distributed systems at any non-trivial scale.
textbook350p+advanced - 03
Staff Engineer
PickWill Larson · 2021
The first serious book on senior IC engineering careers — long overdue, immediately definitive.
Read if you are a senior engineer deciding between management and senior IC tracks.
framework200–350pintermediate - 04
The Software Engineer's Guidebook
PickGergely Orosz · 2023
The most up-to-date map of the modern engineering career ladder, written by someone who actually walked it.
Read if you are 3–10 years into engineering and trying to decide what 'good' looks like at the next level.
framework350p+intermediate