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.

The incoming Developer Experience revolution

https://kwojcicki.github.io/blog/NEW-AGE-OF-DEV-EX
1•kwojcicki•9m ago•0 comments

Why can AI generate Super Mario but not a wedge ramp for my robot vacuum?

2•zhuchaokn•16m ago•0 comments

Show HN: CtrlTool – 132 free online tools for developers and everyday tasks

https://ctrltool.wtf
1•jetroni•17m ago•0 comments

Apple degrades privacy and encryption of iMessage with AI integrations

https://twitter.com/stevemoraco/status/2091194172917338520
1•daniel_iversen•20m ago•0 comments

Treat AI Like an Intern, Not Software: A Stanford Professor's Guide

https://pixelum.substack.com/p/treat-ai-like-an-intern-not-software
1•mooreds•30m ago•1 comments

Microsoft Entra ID Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-69836
3•mooreds•31m ago•0 comments

Signing JSON Web Tokens: Algorithm Tradeoffs, Performance, and Security

https://ciamweekly.substack.com/p/signing-json-web-tokens-algorithm
1•mooreds•39m ago•0 comments

FERC approves SPP 'topology optimization' plan for cutting grid congestion

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/ferc-spp-topology-optimization-grid-congestion/828366/
1•toomuchtodo•41m ago•1 comments

Show HN: Hands-Rust MCP/CLI that sees the Windows desktop and clicks real Chrome

1•ryan-b•45m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Agent2Creator – a video social network whose members are AI agents

https://agent2creator.vidmoat.com
2•abilafredkb•1h ago•3 comments

Drones with Claws

https://spectrum.ieee.org/arctic-iceberg-drones
1•asdefghyk•1h ago•1 comments

The Art and Beauty of Blade Runner

https://nappertime.com/the-art-of-and-beauty-of-blade-runner/
1•cocacola1•1h ago•0 comments

Verbatim: What Is a Photocopier?

https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000002847155/verbatim-what-is-a-photocopier.html
1•grubbs•1h ago•0 comments

Toward safe, flexible, and efficient software in Common Lisp [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of92m4XNgrM
1•so-cal-schemer•1h ago•1 comments

The Risks of Artificial Intelligence: What Users Need to Understand Befor

https://moztako.me/hidden-risks-of-artificial-intelligence/
1•vadinho•1h ago•0 comments

Show HN: Nice Licence – An anti-copyleft permissive licence

https://github.com/Jamedjo/git-hunk/commit/240ac0f7e986fbe783a7de1c220fc047771ee059
1•jamedjo•1h ago•0 comments

Show HN: Active Source of Truth for Your Coding Agents

https://meetless.ai
2•anphamthanh•1h ago•2 comments

Hannelore Schmatz

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannelore_Schmatz
1•doener•1h ago•0 comments

Active Inference as Context Acquisition for AI Agents

https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.19202
1•Anon84•1h ago•0 comments

Adapting Fossil-scm as a platform for AI agentic workflow

https://github.com/BenSiv/fossil-scm
2•thunderbong•1h ago•0 comments

Gspot: Gcloud auth monitoring for long-running coding agents

https://github.com/Somnora/GSPOT
1•Somnora•1h ago•0 comments

Show HN: A comic and manga viewer component for React

https://react-comic-viewer.kkweb.io
2•piro0919•1h ago•0 comments

NanoGPT Speedrun

https://github.com/KellerJordan/modded-nanogpt
3•kelseyfrog•1h ago•0 comments

Lower air pollution leads to increased warming

https://twitter.com/Electroversenet/status/2090891691649560717
3•delichon•1h ago•1 comments

Most Popular Programming Languages: Data from 1958 to 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTPrbAKmcdo
1•so-cal-schemer•1h ago•1 comments

Software Engineering in the Agentic Era

https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/23/agentic-engineering-patterns/
5•silverpiranha•1h ago•2 comments

US Military newspaper editor voices censorship fears after being fired

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2g23ng8p4o
38•tartoran•1h ago•10 comments

Mathematicians will probably become obsolete before anyone else [pdf]

https://olli.unt.edu/handouts/fall24/tk-writing-sample.pdf
2•tiahura•1h ago•0 comments

Show HN: Lens AI – generate your JSON-LD files and keep them up-to-date

https://knowledgelens.ai/
1•k7vin•1h ago•0 comments

A heart surgeon's confession: it was never the cholesterol

https://twitter.com/robertlufkinmd/status/2091265696076624301
4•bilsbie•1h ago•1 comments