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•7mo 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•7mo 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 rise of industrial software

https://chrisloy.dev/post/2025/12/30/the-rise-of-industrial-software
1•chrisloy•41s ago•0 comments

Can two Amazons survive? Invisible e-waste is poisoning the world

https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/can-two-amazons-survive-invisible-e-waste-is-poisoning-the-world/
1•PaulHoule•4m ago•0 comments

Is it better to shower in the morning or at night?

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/1227/1513861-showering-morning-night-hygiene/
1•austinallegro•5m ago•0 comments

Yonaguni, the Japanese Island on the Front Lines of China's Feud with Japan

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/world/asia/japan-china-island-yonaguni.html
1•thm•5m ago•0 comments

Image Pixelator – Pixelate Images Online, Fast and Private

https://imagepixelator.org/
1•wu1064442747•11m ago•1 comments

Squad In Sync – Kill the group chat "Where are we going?" loop

1•alexcloudstar•11m ago•0 comments

AI vs. Real

https://ai-vs-real.com/
1•dsego•12m ago•0 comments

When Vibe Scammers Met Vibe Hackers: Pwning PhaaS with Their Own Weapons [video]

https://media.ccc.de/v/39c3-when-vibe-scammers-met-vibe-hackers-pwning-phaas-with-their-own-weapons
1•Klaster_1•15m ago•0 comments

Torch.ts – building PyTorch in TypeScript from scratch to learn

https://github.com/13point5/torch.ts
1•13point5•20m ago•1 comments

Sophia: A Persistent Agent Framework of Artificial Life

https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.18202
1•mpweiher•23m ago•0 comments

Brew by Weight? Brew by AI – Archestra Blog – Archestra

https://archestra.ai/blog/brew-by-ai
1•scoring-wade-6c•34m ago•0 comments

How Much Does a Horse Cost?

https://horseguidehub.com/how-much-does-a-horse-cost
1•onSmallMessage•35m ago•3 comments

What can I do if ChatGPT gets increasingly laggy after a long conversation?

1•ZHUDAN509•39m ago•2 comments

100k-Watt Iron Beam laser becomes first to be operationally deployed

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/100kw-iron-beam-laser-becomes-worlds-first-drone-defen...
5•tomerbd•40m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Proving 67M ZK rows on a laptop in 28s (Winterfell OOMs)

1•y00zzeek•41m ago•1 comments

Show HN: GPU-Zombie-Hunter – Find GPU Processes Wasting $2,880/Month

https://github.com/ecl-runtime/gpu-zombie-hunter
1•gpuzombiehunter•50m ago•0 comments

Show HN: How SQL Parsers Work

https://nishchith.com/sql-parsers/
1•inishchith•54m ago•0 comments

A Simple Reason Snow Globe Glass Cups Feel More "Special" Than Regular Ones

1•tumblers•58m ago•0 comments

AI as an Attributable Representation Channel: An AI-Mediated Governance Failure

https://zenodo.org/records/18105273
1•businessmate•58m ago•1 comments

Ask HN: uppercase I and lowercase L Are the Same

1•roschdal•58m ago•2 comments

What do I mean by some software devs are "ngmi"?

https://ghuntley.com/ngmi/
1•ghuntley•59m ago•1 comments

2025: The science stories that stopped us in our tracks

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3v17ylvn57o
1•WithinReason•1h ago•0 comments

Why Snow Globe Cups Are Popular–and Why This Design Makes Sense

1•tumblers•1h ago•0 comments

Ask HN: What percentage of code do you still write by hand?

1•aurareturn•1h ago•4 comments

UK company sends factory with 1,000C furnace into space

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62vx0pgyrgo
8•vekerdyb•1h ago•0 comments

Linear Address Spaces: Unsafe at any speed

https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3534854
1•nithssh•1h ago•0 comments

CNN Travel challenged ChatGPT to come up with city guides

https://www.cnn.com/travel/ai-chatgpt-llms-travel-planning
1•_____k•1h ago•0 comments

What the Research Reveals About Real Power

https://rodgercuddington.substack.com/p/what-the-research-reveals-about-real
2•freespirt•1h ago•0 comments

ProxCLMC – Determine the maximum CPU compatibility in Proxmox VE clusters

https://gyptazy.com/proxclmc-identifying-the-maximum-safe-cpu-model-for-live-migration-in-proxmox...
1•gyptazy•1h ago•1 comments

Show HN: Use Claude Code to Query 600 GB Indexes over Hacker News, ArXiv, etc.

https://exopriors.com/scry
3•Xyra•1h ago•0 comments