What I'm reading
and building toward.
I learn by shipping, not reading. But every builder needs a reading list. Here's mine — honest and in progress.
Atomic Habits
James Clear
"Small systems compound into big results — already applying habit-stacking and implementation intention frameworks to my engineering routine."
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor Frankl
"Frankl's account of finding purpose in the worst conditions reframes how I think about motivation and meaning in work. Essential reading."
The Secret
Rhonda Byrne
"A foundational read on mindset and the law of attraction. Changed how I approach goals and the energy I bring to building things."
Designing Data-Intensive Applications
Martin Kleppmann
"The definitive book on distributed systems, databases, and data pipelines. Essential context for anyone building scalable backends."
Designing Machine Learning Systems
Chip Huyen
"Production ML pipelines, data loops, and deployment. Directly relevant to building reliable RAG and LLM systems at scale."
Architecture Patterns with Python
Harry Percival and Bob Gregory
"Domain-driven design, CQRS, and event-driven architecture in Python. Exactly what you need for building maintainable FastAPI systems."
Staff Engineer: Leadership Beyond the Management Track
Will Larson
"The natural next read for a Technical Lead thinking about the Staff+ trajectory. Covers archetypes, influence, and technical strategy."
The Pragmatic Programmer
David Thomas and Andrew Hunt
"Timeless principles on writing better software. DRY, orthogonality, and automation are as relevant today as ever."
Fundamentals of Data Engineering
Joe Reis and Matt Housley
"Covers the full data engineering lifecycle — ingestion, storage, transformation. Useful context for building robust AI data pipelines."
Building LLM Powered Applications
Valentina Alto
"Practical coverage of RAG patterns, prompt engineering, and LLM application architecture. Directly maps to your current stack."
Courses and resources
A public log of what I'm studying and shipping — courses, videos, and resources that shaped how I build.