A selection of my favorite books and long-reads in the web (no particular order).

This list is still WIP. Generally, I am a big fan of (small) personal blogs – the root idea of the internet.

Books

Non-Fiction

• Energy (2006) – Vaclav Smil
• Growth (2019) – Vaclav Smil

  Vaclav Smil picks a topic and goes deep. Gives you new facts and perspectives (like how much energy in W does your brain need?).

• The Design of Everyday Things (2002) – Don Norman
• Everybody Lies (2017) – Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

  Tldr. the truth can only be measured by looking in how people act not what they say.

• The Pleasure of Finding Things out (1999) – Richard P. Feynman

  Motivation to learn more about physics.

• Digital Minimalism (2019) – Cal Newport
• Return to Sri Lanka (2019) – Razeen Sally
• Algorithms to Live By (2016) – Christian & Griffiths

  Provocative title but still contains some nice heuristics and debunking of inefficient daily practices.

Novels

• Remembrance of Earth’s Past Series by Liu Cixin
  • Three Body Triology (2006) -> The Dark Forest (2008) -> Death’s End (2010)

    Compelling science fiction with some physics ideas and a touch of Chinese history.

• Into the Wild (1996) – Jon Krakauer

Software

• Effective Python (2019) – Brett Slatkin

German

• Die Vereindeutigung der Welt (2018) – Thomas Bauer
• Das Milliardenspiel (1996) – Nick Leeson
• Minimum (2009) – Frank Schirrmacher
• Payback (2009) – Frank Schirrmacher
• Kleine Geschichte Chinas (2008) – Helwig Schmidt–Glintzer
• Krieg & Frieden (1867) – Leo Tolstoy

Web

Blogs

• https://danwang.co/

  Dan Wang writes yearly letters and gives a sharp assessment of the latest developments in the economy, politics and society in south-east asia (esp. China). Always a joy to read and looking forward to the next issue.

• https://blog.ganssle.io/

  Issues with Python datetimes? Or worse – think it’s straight forward? This is your blog!

• https://www.martinfowler.com/

  Evergreen and reference site for software architecture and design.

Videos

• https://www.youtube.com/@SebastianLague

  Sebastian Lague creates virtual worlds with a few lines of code presented in an almost mesmerizing way. Always relaxing to watch and still highly interesting!

• https://www.youtube.com/@CodeAesthetic

  Beautiful visualization of software design concepts – on point presented.