These are good ones!

- The DevOps Handbook

- The Google SRE Book

I have not read The Unicorn Project (by the authors of two of the above) but it is probably more relevant to your question.

It's mostly book reviews of tech classics and Ruby stuff right now. The books that have shaped my career so they're usually positive but occasionally a sequel really disappoints so I get more critical: looking at you, The Unicorn Project.

Both of those books are technically fiction but they are incredibly insightful into what goes all around coding and how to optimize those processes.

The characters are very engaging and I found myself relating and taking ideas to improve my work/organization!

The book The Unicorn Project shows how it is dysfunctional. Leaders tend to thrive doing nothing of value in such environments.

  - The First Ideal: Locality and Simplicity
  - The Second Ideal: Focus, Flow, and Joy
  - The Third Ideal: Improvement of Daily Work
  - The Fourth Ideal: Psychological Safety
  - The Fifth Ideal: Customer Focus

1. The Unicorn Project
2. Measure What Matters
3. Start With Why
4. Project to Product
5. Accelerate

It's very easy for us to focus on the tech and think that more knowledge, more performance or whatnot is the next level. While we have some superheros (John Carmack, Dennis Ritchie, Dan Abramov) that are famous for incredibly focus and deep technical skills, for the rest of us, we are evaluated on getting stuff done, reliably and consistently.

There are, of course, situations in which "shipping" has to do with performance (I once had to rewrite and algo from python to rust to gain about 100x performance), but in those cases it's often explicitly defined as a business requirement, i.e. more revenue or lower expenses.

Another tool in my toolbox has been understanding better the "business" of coding, that is, how does software engineering work fits in the "supply chain" of a company, from idea to the sales guy making cold-calls. Two books come to mind, "The Unicorn Project" and "The Phoenix Project".

At any rate, the desire to keep improving yourself, growing and learning it laudable!

I'd recommended reading through all or half of Pheonix and then moving to Unicorn. I found lots of value in both

We are legion - D. Taylor. A four book series, haven't read the rest of the books.

Children of time - A. Tchaikovsky

The Unicorn Project - G. Kim. This would be especially interesting for the HN crowd. It's not sf per se, rather more than contemporary fiction, but the main theme is about programming and politics in a big corporation. Quite original and a lot of fun.

Agency - W. Gibson

The space between worlds - M. Johnson

To sleep in a sea of stars - C. Paolini

The algebraist - I. Banks

Hope you'll find something to your liking. Happy new year.

Goldratt's "The Goal" and its sequels are interesting reading, but please, please internalize the principles he was arguing from for the theory of constraints before trying to apply it to software. Otherwise you end up with "The Pheonix Project" (whose author is apparently making a nice living as a snake oil process consultant, according to friends who have dealt with his appearance in companies) which is the "software factory" mess of the 1980's rewarmed and shoved out the door again. Rather, go read Deming's "The New Economy" (just ignore the section on intrinsic/extrinsic motivation).

2. "The Phoenix Project", "The Unicorn Project" (novels), and "DevOps Handbook" by Eugene Kim, on how different parts of a tech + non-tech organization come and work together.

3. "High Output Management" by Andrew Grove on overall technical management.

4. "Measure What Matters" by John Doerr on setting objectives and measuring their progress.

5. "The Checklist Manifesto" by Atul Gawande on thinking through replicable processes.

6. "Who" by Geoff Smart on hiring.

7. "Start with Why" by Simon Sinek and "The Culture Code" by Daniel Coyle on creating culture and reasons for why people do the work. It's an important part of any management process, double import because of how often it is lost in technical management.

Critical Chain by Eliyahu M. Goldratt

The Unicorn Project by Gene Kim (sequel to the Phoenix Project)

Makers by Cory Doctorow

Daemon & Freedom™ by Daniel Suarez

The Affinities by Robert Charles Wilson

Zodiac by Neal Stephenson

The Blue Ant trilogy (Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, Zero History) by William Gibson

Omnitopia: Dawn by Diane Duane

Walkaway by Cory Doctorow

Autonomous by Annalee Newitz

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

Reamde by Neal Stephenson

Lock In by John Scalzi

Rascal Money by Joseph Garber

Goldratt's books are pure gems, most of them I have read several times over the years just to remind myself each time that I have not understood something properly the last time I read it.