Bookshelf

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Ben Horowitz

Love the message and determination of Ben, but it was a hard read.

Designing Data-Intensive Applications

Martin Kleppmann

The Manager's Path

Camille Fournier

High Output Management

Andy Grove

Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations

Gene Kim, Jez Humble, and Nicole Forsgren

Accelerate is basically the book I point to when someone says “we need to move faster” and the room immediately turns it into opinions. It makes the case, with real data, that speed and stability aren’t a tradeoff if you build the right system. The patterns are pretty straightforward: ship smaller changes, automate everything you can from commit to prod, bake testing and security into the pipeline, and build strong feedback loops so issues show up fast and get fixed fast. The metrics piece is also super practical—lead time, deploy frequency, change fail rate, and time to restore give you an honest scoreboard without turning it into vanity reporting. My biggest takeaway is that leadership isn’t about pushing harder; it’s about investing in the platform, the architecture, and the team habits that make delivery boring, safe, and repeatable—so you can scale without relying on heroics.