frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

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

1•dave2299•1y 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•1y 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.

Threejs Browser World of Tanks

https://cot.kevinliu.studio/
1•kl01•25s ago•0 comments

Nintendo fan loses nearly complete NES collection in 'heartbreaking' theft

https://www.polygon.com/nintendo-game-collection-stolen-from-washington-home/
1•croes•3m ago•0 comments

Cookie started its life as a plastic bottle

https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/2026/august/this-cookie-started-its-life-as-a-plastic-bot...
1•red369•6m ago•0 comments

What the Vancouver Stock Exchange Can Teach Us About Rounding Numbers in VBA

https://nolongerset.com/vse-rounding-in-vba/
1•kristianp•10m ago•0 comments

Latent space exploration and sperm whale language

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article/13/8/250829/483032/Approaching-an-unknown-communi...
1•HR01•19m ago•0 comments

They Looked Like They Were Getting Rich on Polymarket–But None of It Was Real

https://www.wsj.com/business/media/polymarket-social-media-bets-prediction-market-441cdeb5
2•bushwart•20m ago•2 comments

Read your writes: WAIT FOR in PostgreSQL 19

https://clickhouse.com/blog/postgresql-19-wait-for-read-your-writes
1•thunderbong•20m ago•0 comments

How I Automated CodeWarrior with Claude, AppleScript, and SSH

https://www.patreon.com/MacSurf/posts/how-i-automated-167688725
2•mplsllc•27m ago•0 comments

The 'Do or Die' Days

https://shagbark.substack.com/p/the-do-or-die-days
1•herbertl•27m ago•0 comments

MouseHunt – cat-vs-mouse RTS that runs in the browser

https://ghassen1302.itch.io/mousehunt
3•ghassen13021302•33m ago•0 comments

The brain may be about to have its Ozempic moment

https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2026/08/11/the-brain-may-be-about-to-have-its-oz...
5•Anon84•34m ago•3 comments

Powerful US utilities fund 'grassroots' groups to sway cities away from

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/may/07/us-utilities-fund-groups-against-public-power-lobby
3•newsomix9xl•35m ago•1 comments

Show HN: A batch settlement layer for tokenized NYSE stocks

https://github.com/niumeta/niumeta
1•niumeta_TZ•37m ago•0 comments

Utilities Break California Lobbying Record Under Newsom While Former Aides Lead

https://consumerwatchdog.org/energy/utilities-break-california-lobbying-record-under-newsom-while...
1•newsomix9xl•39m ago•1 comments

Microsoft's Maia 200 AI Accelerator at Hot Chips 2026

https://www.servethehome.com/microsofts-maia-200-accelerator-at-hot-chips-2026/
1•pella•41m ago•0 comments

Life may have inherited metabolism from geochemistry

https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/sciadv.aef3128
1•jumploops•48m ago•0 comments

Japan to undertake its biggest arms buildup since World War II

https://www.reuters.com/world/japan-rushes-rearm-with-eye-2027-chinas-taiwan-ambitions-2022-10-18/
3•cwwc•52m ago•1 comments

Queryable Executables

https://fzakaria.com/2026/08/24/actually-queryable-executables
3•rguiscard•54m ago•0 comments

As-Album – A Web Component Because Sometimes You Just Want to Post Pictures

https://sheep.horse/2026/8/as-album_-_a_web_component_because_sometimes_you_j.html
1•leephillips•58m ago•0 comments

Lego Skylines [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfBg8TQQrCQ
2•duck•1h ago•0 comments

A scorer that finds "alive but invisible" GitHub repos, not by stars

https://capuz.github.io/silentstars/
2•fcapuz2•1h ago•0 comments

Hacker News now has an active (official) X account

https://twitter.com/hackernews/status/2092359322433191997
11•n2d4•1h ago•10 comments

America's Desert Metropolis Is on the Short List to Lose Water

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/23/us/arizona-canals-colorado-river.html
1•littlexsparkee•1h ago•1 comments

AI Realist Radar:GPT‑5.6 Sol Pricing, Stripe's OpenRouter Deal

https://msukhareva.substack.com/p/ai-realist-radar-gpt56-sol-pricing
1•Airealist•1h ago•0 comments

Show HN: Hacker News keeps flagging my startup – A multi-Platform search engine

https://www.bluhe.ai/search?q=YC%20startups
1•dhavd•1h ago•0 comments

Smart Toilets – Any serious opinions?

https://www.consumerreports.org/home-garden/toilets/best-smart-toilets-a5030436405/
1•josefritzishere•1h ago•1 comments

Let Me Click

https://ilyabirman.net/meanwhile/all/let-me-click/
3•herbertl•1h ago•1 comments

Nine life lessons from the happiest man in the world

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/ng-interactive/2026/aug/14/life-lessons-from-happiest-ma...
1•herbertl•1h ago•1 comments

The Open Health Foundation

https://theopenhealth.foundation
2•xtracto•1h ago•0 comments

Short Squeeze in US Swaps, Options Shows 'Bessent Put' at Work

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-25/short-squeeze-in-us-swaps-options-shows-bessen...
3•petethomas•1h ago•1 comments