frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

How to get up to speed on software development from the top down

1•dave2299•7mo ago
Hi everyone, I am a non-technical founder. I’ve bootstrapped a tech-enabled services company over the past year that’s growing, profitable, and close to 15K a month in revenue. I, by nature, prefer to be involved in the weeds of what’s happening in each domain of my business at first, even if that results in slower business growth. I built my company with a white label portal software (Copilot.app), Airtable, Squarespace, AppSheet,and some ChatGPT scripts.

Now, I need to start building out custom tools. I want to take a deep dive into software development, starting with front and back end web development from the top down, rather than starting from the bottom up as a coder.

If I keep growing eventually I will end up bringing on technical employees, but I want to understand the lay of the land before I start down that road, and I found that I’m able to do a lot once I understand the domain using low code and no code tools. So for example, things like Retool, etc. will accomplish most of the next phase of building I need. But I want to have a reading list of 10 or 20 books or blogs or courses or podcast, etc.. That will help me start getting the way of the land on how to architect software.

I know basic python, basics of the building blocks of programming at the intro level. I just read Designing Data-Intensive Applications (2nd ed on O’Reilly). Does someone have a list of 10 modern books that would help me understand big picture topics like this?

Comments

sherdil2022•7mo ago
I offer personal / 1:1 training, mentoring and technical consultancy for founders and co-founders.

Please feel free to reach out to me. My throwaway email is in my profile, and I will respond.

Retool uses Loop to turn production data into AI roadmap decisions

https://www.braintrust.dev/blog/retool
1•mooreds•32s ago•0 comments

For US Businesses, Tariff Complexity Is "Death by a Thousand Papercuts"

https://www.cato.org/blog/us-businesses-tariff-complexity-death-thousand-papercuts
2•mooreds•57s ago•0 comments

Who has a right to the moon economy? Whoever gets there first

https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/12/05/who-has-a-right-to-the-moon-economy-whoever-gets-the...
1•mooreds•1m ago•0 comments

Kirkify AI – Free Face Swap Tool – Charlie Kirk Memes

https://kirkify.io
1•duanhjlt•6m ago•0 comments

Increasing code performance with LTO [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPGodf5hNoo
1•chii•9m ago•0 comments

US hits out at EU's 'suffocating regulations' after it fines Elon Musk's X

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g9kejzvw0o
2•begueradj•12m ago•0 comments

Quality vs. Quantity

https://www.thehuntingphotographer.com/blog/qualityvsquantity
1•thunderbong•12m ago•0 comments

Most Intense Solar Storm in Decades Shrunk Earth's Defense by 80% [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuxXsagVZ_s
2•keepamovin•13m ago•0 comments

Show HN: IntentusNet-A Secure IntentRouter and Runtime for Multi-Agent Workflows

1•balachandarmani•25m ago•0 comments

Joe Lonsdale Calls for Public Hangings

https://www.thenerdreich.com/joe-lonsdale-calls-for-public-hangings/
8•jethronethro•26m ago•1 comments

GitHub Actions Has a Package Manager, and It Might Be the Worst

https://nesbitt.io/2025/12/06/github-actions-package-manager.html
3•mperham•27m ago•0 comments

2-Stage Motor System: Redefining EV Technology [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR6pwdVWfDI
1•vinhnx•28m ago•0 comments

Watermelon Mosaic Virus

https://gardenbite.com/watermelon-mosaic-virus/
1•svenfaw•31m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: Why does every B2B SaaS have to look like Linear/Stripe?

2•PaulShin•34m ago•2 comments

Package Manager Design Tradeoffs

https://nesbitt.io/2025/12/05/package-manager-tradeoffs.html
2•todsacerdoti•37m ago•0 comments

Is Pixelfed sawing off the branch that the Fediverse is sitting on?

https://ploum.net/2025-12-04-pixelfed-against-fediverse.html
1•8organicbits•37m ago•0 comments

Grok 4.20 tops alpha arena trading benchmark

https://nof1.ai/leaderboard
1•knuppar•38m ago•0 comments

Show HN: I built a local-first URL redirector to stop doomscrolling

https://github.com/jordanblakey/url-redirector
1•jordan_blakey•39m ago•1 comments

Girls and boys solve math problems differently – with similar short-term results

https://theconversation.com/girls-and-boys-solve-math-problems-differently-with-similar-short-ter...
2•nradov•46m ago•1 comments

Flow Control: a programmer's text editor

https://flow-control.dev/
3•signa11•53m ago•0 comments

Coverd – gambling with your credit card purchases

https://www.coverd.us/about
1•smsm42•55m ago•0 comments

AI is mastering language. Should we trust what it says? (2022)

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/15/magazine/ai-language.html
2•maxutility•55m ago•0 comments

Pdsink: USB Power Delivery Sink library for embedded devices

https://github.com/pdsink/pdsink
1•zdw•1h ago•0 comments

Scientists link sugar substitute Sorbitol to liver disease, in zebrafish

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-link-popular-sugar-substitute-to-liver-disease/
10•mraniki•1h ago•1 comments

'The time has come to declare war on AI'

https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/time-to-declare-war-ai-21221535.php
6•MilnerRoute•1h ago•1 comments

Trying VLLM Ideas on Apple Silicon with MLX (WIP)

https://github.com/waybarrios/vllm-mlx
1•waybarrios•1h ago•1 comments

AI Structural Redesign Proven on Gemini/Copilot

https://imgur.com/a/A8x18kc
1•korea_koh•1h ago•1 comments

Show HN: GitHired – Find Your Next 10x Engineer

https://www.githired.tech
4•raghavbansal11•1h ago•11 comments

Why Does A.I. Write Like That?

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/magazine/chatbot-writing-style.html
1•gmays•1h ago•0 comments

Rio de Janeiro's talipot palm trees bloom for the first and only time

https://en.jardineriaon.com/The-talipot-palm-trees-of-Rio-de-Janeiro-bloom-for-the-first-and-only...
2•1659447091•1h ago•0 comments