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.

If your team is too busy doing their 'job' to experiment with AI

https://ghuntley.com/replaced/
1•ghuntley•47s ago•0 comments

Co-creator of Empire Market dark web marketplace given 40-year sentence

https://therecord.media/co-creator-empire-dark-net-market-sentenced
1•giuliomagnifico•2m ago•0 comments

SpaceX calls for better coordination in orbit after near-misses with Starlink

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/10/spacex-calls-for-better-coordination-in-orbit-after-near-mi...
1•rbanffy•2m ago•0 comments

Max stupid: EU may loosen EV rules for third time in two years, aiding China

https://electrek.co/2026/10/09/max-stupid-eu-may-loosen-ev-rules-for-third-time-in-two-years-aidi...
2•Klaster_1•5m ago•0 comments

TokenRouter: A serving engine for token-level LLM routing

https://fuvty.github.io/thinking_yard_project_page/projects/tokenrouter/
1•ilreb•8m ago•0 comments

South Africa's Navanethem 'Navi' Pillay Wins 2026 Nobel Peace Prize

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20261009-south-africa-s-navanethem-navi-pillay-wins-2026-nobel...
7•abdullahalharir•13m ago•1 comments

Navanethem Pillay wins Nobel price for peace

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navanethem_Pillay
1•abdullahalharir•13m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Stećak – a lightweight terminal inspired by Bosnian medieval tombstones

2•Ilikeruby•20m ago•0 comments

codyssey: turn every Claude Code session into a little adventure

https://github.com/delexw/codyssey
1•delexw•22m ago•0 comments

Show HN: SpeakUp – iOS app for feedback on your speaking (fillers, pauses, etc.)

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/speak-up/id6760108342
1•__Srey__•22m ago•0 comments

Sift – An LLVM pass for speculative loop vectorization with E-graph SMT caching

https://github.com/sorenkhayes/sift
1•sorenkhayes•23m ago•0 comments

Making Sense of BigQuery Pricing Models

https://www.alvin.ai/blog/bigquery-pricing-models
1•Arimbr•23m ago•0 comments

Aleph Alpha and Mistral launches fuel Europe's sovereign AI push

https://www.renascence.io/news/96889/aleph-alpha-mistral-launches-fuel-europes-sovereign-ai-push
1•nonmaskable•25m ago•0 comments

[video] Pedagogy in the Times of AI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2a1J0UPeL4
1•newswasboring•26m ago•0 comments

Is This Machine Playing?

https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.07130
1•vinhnx•27m ago•0 comments

OpenClaw Foundation wins ICANN application for .claw top-level domain

https://twitter.com/steipete/status/2108374513931165759
4•soltanov•28m ago•0 comments

APX Forth: A Surprise

https://www.goto10retro.com/p/apx-forth-a-surprise
1•ibobev•34m ago•0 comments

Teen hike Claude Canada wilderness - emergency rescue

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/08/teen-hike-claude-ai-directions-rescue-canada-mountain
2•mo7061•36m ago•0 comments

Sound and complete flow typing with unions, intersections and negations [pdf]

https://whileydave.com/publications/Pea13_VMCAI_preprint.pdf
1•fanf2•36m ago•0 comments

When No ID Means No Internet: Age Verification and Right to Access Information

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/10/when-no-id-means-no-internet-age-verification-and-right-acc...
1•mdp2021•38m ago•0 comments

Show HN: SpectroMood, speech emotion detection with a decision model

https://github.com/ketul93/spectromood
1•ketul_shah•38m ago•0 comments

RTSP to Virtual web cam in Rust

https://github.com/carl-eis/rtsp-rust-virtualcam
1•DistantCl3ric•39m ago•0 comments

EU faces gas supply shortage as winter looms

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-faces-gas-supply-shortage-iran-war-winter-looms/
2•leonidasrup•41m ago•0 comments

Kubernetes for AI agents: when code is cheap, proof matters

https://kubedex.com/kubernetes-ai-agentic-development/
1•stevenacreman•44m ago•0 comments

Turn any app/website into an API

https://github.com/goodnight000/api-anything
1•goodnight000•46m ago•1 comments

AI has made it easier than ever to make apps nobody asked for

https://boakandbailey.com/2026/09/ai-has-made-it-easier-than-ever-to-make-apps-nobody-asked-for/
5•padraic7a•46m ago•2 comments

You are better than me

https://antejavor.github.io/blog/2026/you-are-better-then-me/
3•taubek•46m ago•0 comments

How to Automatically Redact Leaked API Keys and .env Files at the Edge

https://medium.com/@divinelab/how-to-automatically-redact-leaked-api-keys-and-env-files-at-the-ed...
1•divinelab•50m ago•0 comments

New AMOS PRO 3D Basic online

https://twitter.com/BlackCreepy_Cat/status/2108115762757984416
2•seyhajin•54m ago•0 comments

Welcome to Gemini at Work 2026: Introducing the Gemini Agent

https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ai-machine-learning/welcome-to-gemini-at-work-2026
2•oscarfr•56m ago•0 comments