Stephan Schmidt
Books on HackerNews for CTOs - Reviewing 2023
What books did HackerNews mention that are good for CTOs?
Reading through “The Hacker News Top 40 books of 2023” (thanks for all the work!) I wondered which ones of these are the most relevant for CTOs? The list contains many computer programming books, and while somehow interesting, you might be beyond those (or are you?). It contains lots of mathematics books, but hey, you’re not working in finance. It contains lots of novels, and all of them should be a great read, but they’ll probably don’t help you with your CTO job.
Here is the Top 10 list of books for CTOs mentioned on HackerNews:
2. Designing Data-Intensive Applications - Martin Kleppmann
Great overview over storages and how to design around data.
5. How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
CTOs ignore networking. While their marketing peers network at each lunch, CTOs sit with developers (you can sit with developers all the time, don’t do it every lunch). Win friends in marketing and finance and influence people in sales and the CEO.
6. The Mythical Man-Month - Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
Classic, still relevant.
13. Peopleware - Tom DeMarco, Timothy Lister
Classic, still relevant, too. It was the first tech management book I’ve read. I think it’s one of the first books who think of software development as a people business.
21. High Output Management - Andrew S. Grove
Classic, still relevant. Probably the first modern management book. MUST READ.
24. The Phoenix Project - Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford
Startup CTO? Read it.
36. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - Patrick Lencioni
Good if you know what you’re doing.
62. The Lean Startup - Eric Ries
Everyone wants to be lean, no-one does it. Go back to the basics. Talk to customers, talk to the market, follow the model instead of what your company thinks lean is.
63. An Elegant Puzzle - Will Larson
UUUUUUNDERRAAAAAAAAAAAAAATED. Should be at the top.
69. The Idea Factory - Jon Gertner
Today’s CTOs don’t innovate enough. Always think on how technical innovation can drive product success (and a new JS framework is not technical innovation in this sense)
Good and interesting list, with books people mention on HackerNews.
More books? You can find the books I recommend to engineering managers and CTOs here.
