A mix of programming, non-fiction, and fiction. Notes are short + biased.
Currently reading
George Orwell
Short + razor-sharp
political-satire allegory dystopia
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Provocative + skeptical
Rare events, big consequences, and hindsight stories.
risk uncertainty decision-making
Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau; Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau
Clear + systems-first
best book ive read so far. i cant stop reading this one
operating-systems systems computer-science
Hanya Yanagihara
Massive + emotionally heavy
Known for its intensity—plan accordingly.
literary-fiction friendship trauma
Up next
Atul Gawande
Simple + high-impact
Why checklists work in complex, high-stakes work.
productivity medicine decision-making
Luciano Ramalho
Deep + Pythonic
A thorough tour of writing idiomatic Python.
python programming language-features
Programming
Martin Kleppmann
Deep + foundational
My go-to reference for distributed systems.
systems databases
Harry J. W. Percival; Bob Gregory
Practical + pattern-heavy
Commonly referred to as 'Cosmic Python' (from the companion site).
python software-architecture tdd
Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau; Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau
Clear + systems-first
best book ive read so far. i cant stop reading this one
operating-systems systems computer-science
Luciano Ramalho
Deep + Pythonic
A thorough tour of writing idiomatic Python.
python programming language-features
Non-fiction
Cal Newport
Practical + strict
Helped me redesign my mornings.
focus habits
Eckhart Tolle
Calm + grounding
More exercises and reflections than theory.
spirituality mindfulness self-help
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Provocative + skeptical
Rare events, big consequences, and hindsight stories.
risk uncertainty decision-making
Ramachandra Guha
Big + richly detailed
A sweeping narrative of India post-1947.
history india politics
Atul Gawande
Simple + high-impact
Why checklists work in complex, high-stakes work.
productivity medicine decision-making
Angela Duckworth
Motivating + research-backed
A mix of studies, stories, and practical framing.
psychology habits motivation
Fiction
George Orwell
Short + razor-sharp
political-satire allegory dystopia
André Aciman
Lyrical + intimate
memory, desire, and a very specific kind of longing.
literary-fiction romance coming-of-age
Amish Tripathi
Fast + mythic
Book 1 of the Shiva Trilogy.
mythological-fiction fantasy indian-fiction
Amish Tripathi
Mystery + momentum
Book 2 of the Shiva Trilogy.
mythological-fiction fantasy indian-fiction
Amish Tripathi
Mystery + momentum
Book 3 of the Shiva Trilogy. first series ever
mythological-fiction fantasy indian-fiction
J. D. Salinger
Classic + raw
relatable teenage angst
classic coming-of-age literary-fiction
Hanya Yanagihara
Massive + emotionally heavy
Known for its intensity—plan accordingly.
literary-fiction friendship trauma
Papers
To read
Ghemawat, Gobioff, Leung · SOSP · 2003
Classic distributed storage design.
systems storage
Read
Vaswani, Shazeer, Parmar, et al. · NeurIPS · 2017
Introduced Transformers; great for understanding self-attention.
ml transformers