STOP Taking Random Programming Courses - Read These Books Instead
Most programming books are a complete waste of time. But after years of reading technical books, building systems, and honestly wasting money on stuff that didn't help
I’ve narrowed it down to the few books that actually change how you think about programming, building systems, and preparing for real-world engineering.
If you're a beginner, an aspiring software engineer, or already working in tech and want to level up your thinking, this video will save you a lot of time (and money).
Here’s what I cover 👇
✅ The best book to start learning Python by building real projects
✅ The systems book that explains what’s actually happening under the hood of your computer
✅ The interview prep book that helped thousands of engineers land jobs at top tech companies
✅ The must-read guide to designing scalable, data-intensive systems
✅ A powerful philosophy for writing cleaner, more maintainable code
✅ A practical guide to building real AI applications with modern foundation models
✅ The timeless engineering mindset every developer should develop
Timestamps
0:00 Why Most Books Are Useless
1:09 Book 1
1:58 Book 2
2:46 Book 3
3:42 Book 4
5:06 Book 5
6:21 Book 6
7:12 Book 7
about me
I’m Maddy, a senior software engineer (prev. at Google), with prior internships at Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, IBM, and Amazon. Sharing my journey here - thanks for watching 🤍
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*disclaimer: views are all my own and do not represent any current / past employer(s)
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