Software should be optimized for the domain it is performing in, or else it will turn into an unmaintainable nightmare for both developers and domain experts.
Mistborn is a great fantasy read. Incredible world-building. Really enjoyed the magic aspect and the descriptions. Would recommend to fans of Harry Potter-like stories. Only nitpick is that the main character (Vin) is a bit of a Mary Sue.
Pino Lella's story as a young Italian man during World War 2. Slightly worse than The Nightingale but great story nonetheless. Starting to warm up to war story genre. Strong characters.
Accounting of the partnership between Amos Tversky and Danny Kahnemanm, interwoven with their greatest hits both individually and as a pair. Equal parts informative, interesting, personal.
Great insight into overcoming mental hurdles to perform better both in pressure and non-pressure situations. Your brain should be an asset not a liability. Good stuff.
Lydia Lee, a 16 year old in Middletown, commits suicide. Her family grapples with how this could have happened. It turns out everyone, including Lydia, has their own internal demons that don't come out until it's too late.
Mostly anecdotes and stories about how the 20s are high-stakes but not treated appropriately by people going through them. Entertaining read, not much actionable. Wish there was more data. Good reminders to get my ass into gear.
Master-class on long-form nonfiction writing (books, newspaper articles), with personal narrative interspersed. Not super applicable to me (editors, publishers, etc.) but extremely well-written and engaging nontheless.
The simplest explanation of Bayesian methods and probabilistic programming I've come across. Says a lot about the field that this book was still extremely difficult to get through.
A case for the five parts of learning and thinking critically: deep understanding, failure, questions, the flow of idea, and change. Plus a helpful mnemonic!
The history of the universe and humanity. Half science, half history. The science parts were much more interesting than the history parts to me. Potentially outdated? (17 y/o)
Christopher is a child who lives with some degree of autism which makes his thoughts and life quite different. He sets out to solve the mystery of who murdered his neighbor's dog.
A memoir about finding enlightenment through Buddhist meditation, and how that brought fortune to the other areas in the author's life. Well-told, but I wasn't able to fully get past my initial skepticism.
A German foster child named Liesel Meminger is The Book Thief. The story of her experience during the war. Maybe I'm just numbing to all of these WWII novels but I couldn't muster up as much relation to these characters as the ones in The Nightingale and Beneath a Scarlet Sky
Outlines a five-week program to get all of the basics trained into your dog. Giving this program a shot, seems promising but quite a commitment. Author clearly knows what she's talking about.
Solid set of backbone concepts for enterprise applications. Many of his ideas have developed a lot since this book was released in 2002 but it strengthened my understanding to see them explained firsthand.
Coming-of-age story for Ada Sibelius, home-schooled her whole life by her eccentric father but forced to grow up when he comes down with Alzheimer's. Enjoyed it.
Series of Buddhist-centric talks about life given by Pema Chodron. Generally too hand-wavy for me but good reminders of how to behave and live. Not heavily religious.
Story of a kid named August who has a disfigured face who goes to school for the first time. It's definitely a kid's book. I appreciated the message a lot and it was well-told, but I think I would have enjoyed it much more 10 years ago :)