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 A.I.s Are Already Out of Control

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-helen-toner.html
1•jlev1•2m ago•1 comments

Anthropic crossed 40% of ARR from indirect channels

https://twitter.com/SemiAnalysis_/status/2089714350164492652
1•porridgeraisin•3m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Obidos – self-hosted secrets storage and sharing with fine-grained ACLs

https://github.com/spenego/Obidos
1•spenegosoftware•3m ago•0 comments

Remote work benefits are much bigger than a paycheck

https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/6033665-economic-value-personal-time-salary/
3•madihaa•4m ago•0 comments

Interfaces Cheat Sheet

https://interfaces.dev/cheat-sheet
1•thm•4m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Shoehorn – Quantize any model down to run on your machine

https://notactuallytreyanastasio.github.io/shoehorn/
1•rhgraysonii•5m ago•0 comments

How to build Online Stores Effectively in 2026

https://shopi.lk/blog/woocommerce-vs-ai-ecommerce-website-sri-lanka-2026/
1•ruzny-ramzan•6m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: Can I realistically make an app as a junior dev?

1•brooke1•7m ago•1 comments

StockHuntr, chat with SEC filings and get cited answers (free)

https://www.stockhuntr.net
1•KylieM•8m ago•0 comments

Human Agents

https://docs.ojin.ai
1•arbayi•9m ago•0 comments

Supper Cool Doodle Characters

https://github.com/albertobeiz/kindergrimm
1•boveyking•10m ago•0 comments

Muse Glimmer is a memory hierarchy disguised as a 30B Transformer

https://abstractextraordinary.com/blog/how-muse-glimmer-fits-an-agent-on-your-device/
2•stepnivlk•10m ago•0 comments

Firefox and Exa Partnership

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/firefox-exa-partnership/
2•pentagrama•11m ago•0 comments

Smaller Images for the Web

https://milofultz.com/2026-08-06-smaller-images-for-the-web.html
1•surprisetalk•11m ago•0 comments

Will you be wearing an exoskeleton in ten years?

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02527-z
1•sohkamyung•12m ago•0 comments

One Video Per Day – An intentional alternative to infinite feeds

https://www.onevideoperday.com
1•flingflangflode•12m ago•0 comments

Show HN: CSS-in-JS Arena Bamboo, StyleX and Panda on Pixel-Identical Apps

https://github.com/gajus/css-in-js-arena
1•gajus•13m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Spyc – a vi-driven terminal file commander for your coding agents

https://github.com/Tripstack-Corp/spyc
1•agentdrek•13m ago•1 comments

Protein Slop Took over the Supermarket

https://thedailyunemployed.com/articles/how-protein-slop-took-over-the-supermarket
1•mikelgan•13m ago•2 comments

CDC: U.S. kindergarten vaccine exemptions hit record high as coverage falls

https://abc45.com/news/nation-world/cdc-us-kindergarten-vaccine-exemptions-hit-record-high-as-cov...
2•keploy•13m ago•0 comments

These Mammoth Ivory Carvings May Be the "Find of the Year"

https://nautil.us/these-mammoth-ivory-carvings-may-be-the-find-of-the-year-1283903
2•Brajeshwar•13m ago•0 comments

Music Theory for Programmers

https://runjs.app/blog/music-theory-for-programmers
1•lukehaas•14m ago•1 comments

Perplexity's free AI offer left it with millions more users in India

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/18/perplexitys-free-ai-offer-left-it-with-millions-more-users-in-i...
1•speckx•14m ago•0 comments

She told no one about her agony except ChatGPT. What her death reveals about AI

https://www.npr.org/2026/08/18/nx-s1-5929575/ai-suicide-risks-mental-health
1•mttjj•15m ago•0 comments

ABC Files First Amendment Lawsuit Against FCC

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/abc-first-amendment-lawsuit-fcc-1236837028/
3•keploy•16m ago•1 comments

Tie Club

https://martin-baker.com/tie-club/
1•neom•17m ago•0 comments

AI Memory for Claude: An Honest 4-Way Comparison

https://labyrinthanalyticsconsulting.com/blog/claude-memory-primitive-vs-loreconvo-vs-claude-mem-...
1•labyrinthAC•17m ago•0 comments

Shield (Font)

https://shieldfont.org/
1•mooreds•18m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Coalent – an LLM answer cache that invalidates when source docs change

https://github.com/Vectorlink-Labs/coalent
1•nisarg-pujara•18m ago•0 comments

David Hayes: Boring Software, Clear Incentives, and Better Checklists [audio]

https://maintainable.fm/episodes/david-hayes-boring-software-clear-incentives-and-better-checklists
1•mooreds•19m ago•0 comments