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.

Show HN: Lines of C, Beats QOI

https://github.com/OzzyMitchell/tinycodec
1•ozzymitchell•9m ago•0 comments

Why AI task-level productivity doesn't translate to organizational throughput

https://pub.towardsai.net/the-hamster-paradox-36dd0d950568
1•younss•9m ago•0 comments

Oversight Has Capacity: Calibrating Agent Guards to a Subjective Fatiguing Human

https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.08919
1•Jimmc414•12m ago•0 comments

Testing 12 different Zigbee temperature/humidity sensors

https://smarthomescene.com/reviews/best-selling-zigbee-temperature-sensors-tested/
1•walrus01•17m ago•0 comments

Changelog to README: testing LLM update strategies

https://codecut.ai/readme-update-from-release-notes/
1•khuyentran1401•17m ago•0 comments

Meeting Buddy – A Cute Mascot That Parachutes in Before Your Meetings (macOS)

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/meeting-buddy-tiny-companion/id6811563656?mt=12
1•xuho•19m ago•0 comments

Gentle AI: AI Coding Ecosystem

https://gentle-ai.gentlemanprogramming.com/
1•OlivOnTech•27m ago•0 comments

Show HN: The Livability Map of Japan

https://kodawari.nimikko.co.jp/
1•asutekku•28m ago•1 comments

Organic Driven Development

https://github.com/stir084/organic-driven-development/blob/main/README.md
2•OlivOnTech•32m ago•0 comments

Why don't more developers "use the platform"?

https://nolanlawson.com/2026/10/03/why-dont-more-developers-use-the-platform/
21•vinhnx•37m ago•5 comments

What's the Future for Pure Math Research in the Age of AI? [Wolfram]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPrWX8i1htM
1•agnosticmantis•43m ago•0 comments

Show HN: SuperLocalMemory 4.0 "Governed Memory Operating System for AI Agents"

https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.08253
1•vpbhardwaj•50m ago•0 comments

Open ADS-B Telemetry and Flight Dynamics Registry for Flydubai FZ1073

https://evgeny1971.github.io/fz1073-investigation/
1•genvinnikov•51m ago•0 comments

Call It Evil: Understanding the Trump Era

https://wwnorton.co.uk/books/9781324131045-call-it-evil
2•hkhn•52m ago•0 comments

Show HN: LC3 VM in Golang

https://github.com/shraddhaag/toyvm
1•shraddhaag•1h ago•0 comments

The East Asian Fertility Disaster

https://twitter.com/MoreBirths/status/2097805266473324859
1•barry-cotter•1h ago•0 comments

Lego Machine Plays Tic-Tac-Toe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soklpa_JZOI
1•suopspaces•1h ago•0 comments

Pi-based coding agent with hard budget caps

https://kimchi.dev/
1•testycool•1h ago•1 comments

Write Your Own Virtual Machine

https://www.jmeiners.com/lc3-vm/
2•shraddhaag•1h ago•0 comments

Forms in HTML Tables

https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?t=33817
2•mimasama•1h ago•0 comments

AI can clone your indie game, but not its soul

https://twitter.com/robertvaradan/status/2106061989122334778
8•robertvaradan•1h ago•0 comments

Iran says it seized US underwater vehicle conducting 'espionage'

https://thearabweekly.com/iran-says-it-seized-us-underwater-vehicle-conducting-espionage
9•snarky-comments•1h ago•2 comments

Survival Ball Versus: The Sabbatical Sprint

https://lopespm.com/2026/10/04/survival_ball_versus.html
1•lopespm•1h ago•0 comments

Chalkboard and Avatar for AI Agents

https://github.com/zohayrslileh/more-space
1•zouhirdx•1h ago•1 comments

Give your AI agent awareness of what's happening around you

https://github.com/SyncSo-Inc/syncso
1•ts3479•1h ago•0 comments

Musk explains why Tesla Robotaxi isn't running at night, and Lidar is the answer

https://electrek.co/2026/10/03/tesla-robotaxi-pets-night-musk-lidar/
7•cisc•1h ago•0 comments

China's space plane appears to have released a mystery object in orbit

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/chinas-space-plane-appears-to-have-re...
5•mooreds•1h ago•0 comments

What is the true reach of a human being?

https://www.echohive.ai/the-reach-of-being
1•echohive42•1h ago•0 comments

Ask HN: How different is Apple App Store and Play Store paid apps market

1•sahil423•1h ago•0 comments

What September's Employment Numbers Say [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlZg8gQAUTk
1•mooreds•1h ago•0 comments