frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

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

1•dave2299•6mo 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•6mo 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.

Market Rout Intensifies Up Everything from Tech to Crypto to Gold

https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/market-rout-intensifies-sweeping-up-everything-from-tech-to-cr...
1•zerosizedweasle•6m ago•0 comments

Private equity firms are snapping up mobile home parks, driving out residents

https://theconversation.com/private-equity-firms-are-snapping-up-mobile-home-parks-and-driving-ou...
2•PaulHoule•8m ago•0 comments

Oracle hit hard in Wall Street's tech sell-off over its AI bet

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2025/11/oracle-hit-hard-in-wall-streets-tech-sell-...
1•Bender•8m ago•0 comments

Judge smacks down Texas AG's request to block Tylenol ads

https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/11/judge-smacks-down-texas-ags-request-to-immediately-block-t...
1•Bender•8m ago•0 comments

UCLA faculty gets big win in suit against Trump's university attacks

https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/11/ucla-faculty-gets-big-win-in-suit-against-trumps-universi...
3•Bender•9m ago•0 comments

There's trauma, and then there's Gnar

https://sashachapin.substack.com/p/theres-trauma-and-then-theres-gnar
1•eatitraw•9m ago•0 comments

University of Michigan Autograder for Programming Assignments

https://github.com/eecs-autograder/autograder.io
1•sloped•9m ago•0 comments

Building Custom Hackberry Pi

https://eclypsium.com/blog/build-the-ultimate-cyberdeck-hackberry-pi/
2•barqawiz•10m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: What are "everyday coding tasks"?

2•kamphey•10m ago•0 comments

Proposed Guidelines for AI-Generated Submissions to the Linux Kernel

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Kernel-AI-Guidelines-v3
1•akyuu•10m ago•0 comments

Show HN: My hobby OS that runs Minecraft

https://astral-os.org/posts/2025/10/31/astral-minecraft.html
1•avaliosdev•11m ago•0 comments

The Best Years of Your Life Are Probably Still Ahead

https://time.com/7333672/laura-carstensen-aging-emotions-longevity-stanford/
1•manveerc•13m ago•0 comments

A curated list of 100 libraries & frameworks for AI engineers building with LLMs

https://github.com/Sumanth077/ai-engineering-toolkit
1•salkahfi•14m ago•0 comments

Beneficial Bloodsucking

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40693342/
1•CGMthrowaway•14m ago•0 comments

Empire of AI Is Wildly Misleading

https://andymasley.substack.com/p/empire-of-ai-is-wildly-misleading
1•kristjansson•16m ago•1 comments

Kroah-Hartman: Linux Kernel Maintainer on CRA Open Source Impact

https://thenewstack.io/kroah-hartman-linux-kernel-maintainer-on-cra-open-source-impact/
1•CrankyBear•17m ago•0 comments

Is it worth rooting an Android phone in 2025?

https://kevinboone.me/root-2025.html
1•speckx•18m ago•0 comments

That feeling when the "smart" financial decision flips on its head

2•Anumbia•18m ago•4 comments

Auth-Agent – “Sign in with Google” but for AI Agents

https://auth-agent.com
1•hkpatel3•19m ago•3 comments

The case against OOP is understated, not overstated

https://boxbase.org/entries/2020/aug/3/case-against-oop/
2•lr0•21m ago•0 comments

WhatsApp Is Down

https://downdetector.co.uk/status/whatsapp/
1•daveys110•23m ago•0 comments

RAM: WTF?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hLiwNViMak
1•moneycantbuy•23m ago•0 comments

This site estimates Meta's revenue from your IG use, and sends them an invoice

https://meta-invoice.com/
1•dadada_dada_da•23m ago•2 comments

TelUI 1.3 – The Better TelUI

https://www.npmjs.com/package/telui
1•telui•24m ago•1 comments

PHPCoin: Pure PHP Blockchain

https://github.com/phpcoinn/node
1•attogram•27m ago•1 comments

How to Start a Startup (2005)

https://paulgraham.com/start.html
2•shminge•28m ago•0 comments

More liberals, people of color and LGBTQ say they're buying guns out of fear

https://www.npr.org/2025/11/15/nx-s1-5607064/guns-liberals-trump-administration-people-of-color-l...
18•makerdiety•29m ago•6 comments

Ion: Modern System Shell in Rust

https://github.com/redox-os/ion
2•nateb2022•29m ago•0 comments

UK gov to ban selling show tickets above face price

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c77z2l3yzl8o
3•lifeisstillgood•30m ago•3 comments

LANL and Valar Atomics Announce Project Nova Criticality Milestone

https://www.valaratomics.com/docs/Project-Nova
1•beefman•32m ago•0 comments