Books Read in 2023

They can be grouped in the following categories:

Below is the full list along with my short take on each.

The AI Revolution in Medicine: GPT-4 and Beyond — Peter Lee , Carey Goldberg , Isaac Kohane

2023 was a breakthrough year for Large Language Models in AI. This book does a good job in translating what that means for the healthcare providers and patient experience/outcome, now and into the future. Amazon link.

The Deep Learning Revolution — Terrence J. Sejnowski

This is a comprehensive narration of major events (setbacks & breakthroughs) and collaboration in AI -> Machine Learning -> Deep Learning & Reinforcement Learning, since the 1950s. Amazon link.

Monolith to Microservices: Evolutionary Patterns to Transform Your Monolith — Sam Newman

The what, why, how and when (and when not to) to convert monolith application into microservcies based architectures. Amazon link.

Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time — Titus Winters , Tom Manshreck , Hyrum Wright

Comprehensive book on how Google does software engineering (people, process, tools), while maintaining a mono-repo for all (almost) their codebase. Amazon link.

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics — Carlo Rovelli

A quick read on all things physics from Newton (laws of motion) to Einstein (general relativity) to Neils Bohr (quantum mechanics). Amazon link.

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future — Peter Thiel , Blake Masters

Illuminating book on how novel value creation (that defies competition and creates monopolies) requires novel thinking and not following process or trying to repeat earlier/others successes. Amazon link.

Lean Enterprise: How High Performance Organizations Innovate at Scale — Matthew Humble , Joanne Molesky , Barry O’Reilly

Authors demonstrate how to incorporate DevOps and Lean Startup principles to lead an agile organization. Amazon link.

Learning Agile: Understanding Scrum, XP, Lean, and Kanban — Andrew Stellman, Jennifer Greene

Books does a good job explaining the different agile methologies and principles. Amazon link.

Outliers: The Story of Success — Malcolm Gladwell

Gladwell highlights how opportunity (& luck), outside circumstances, cultural background and practice (hard-work) play more important role than talent in success outcomes. Insightful. Amazon link.

21 Lessons for the 21st Century — Yuval Noah Harari

Enjoyed reading this book as much of Harari’s earlier book, Sapiens. I recommend both. While Sapiens was about the past, this is about the present. Amazon link.

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones — James Clear

If you want to pick up a habit, start small, make it obvious (easy to do), attractive (appeals to you) and rewarding (releases dopamine after doing it). Keep repeating and it becomes second nature. Amazon link.

The Startup of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career — Reid Hoffman , Ben Casnocha

This book is about treating your own career as a startup and how to enhance it. Amazon link.