My Recommended Resources for the Curious Engineer

IT is continuously evolving, so in my mindset I need to stay up to date with the most recent trends and technologies. This is part of my job requirement, but also part of my character: being curious about what is to come. I have built up a list of resources I keep coming back to and refer to.

It is a list: the books, channels and feeds I genuinely follow and some recommend. It is opinionated and aimed at experienced engineers, but most of it works for any level. I’ll try to keep this current, and I’ll revisit it as things change. For example, I used to follow a lot on Twitter/X, but the environment became too toxic and I shifted away from it.

A small note on language: most of these recommendations are in English, but I have mixed in a few Dutch-language sources.

Books

My goal is to read 2 technical books a year.

Mindset and craft

  • The Phoenix Project - Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford. A novel about an IT-manager rescuing a failing project. This was so recognisable and actually a fun read, because I could map some characters in the book onto colleagues.
  • The Pragmatic Programmer (20th Anniversary Edition) - David Thomas, Andrew Hunt. Still the best single book on how to actually work as a developer. I wrote a short review of it earlier.
  • Clean Code and Clean Architecture - Robert C. Martin. Great starter book. A lot of it seems common sense, but Uncle Bob took the time to write it down. Read them critically.
  • Building a Second Brain - Tiago Forte. Not strictly engineering, but it changed how I capture and reuse knowledge. I wrote about my own setup.
  • Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time - Jeff Sutherland. Must-read if you want to start with agile development.
  • The Software Craftsman - Sandro Mancuso. A guide on how to be a capable IT professional.

Architecture and design

  • Domain-Driven Design - Eric Evans. The “blue book”. This is the bible for designing software systems.
  • Implementing Domain-Driven Design - Vaughn Vernon. The “red book”. More detailed and harder, but tons of useful information and patterns.
  • Release It! - Michael Nygard. Stability and resilience patterns for production systems. Loved it. I reviewed it here.
  • Effective Java - Joshua Bloch. Must-read for a Java developer.

YouTube channels

YouTube and podcasts are where I keep a pulse on the industry. Not every channel deserves the same attention, so I have added a watch frequency to each one.

The scale:

  • 💫 high signal, low time cost. I rarely skip an upload.
  • 🌟 consistently worth your time. I watch most of it.
  • ⭐ useful sometimes, but a lot of it will not be relevant to you.

Development and engineering

  • Fireship 💫 Short, fast, genuinely informative. The “100 seconds” and news videos are the most efficient way to stay aware of new tech. Tech news, JavaScript and AI focus.
  • Devoxx 💫 Free, high-quality conference talks from Devoxx. Java and other JVM-languages focussed.
  • ThePrimeagen 🌟 Opinionated takes on engineering, performance and developer culture. A lot about AI and yapping. Entertaining.
  • GOTO Conferences ⭐ Free, high-quality conference talks from serious practitioners.
  • Chris Titus Tech ⭐ Interesting mix of Windows, Linux and Mac yapping.

Security

  • John Hammond 🌟 Malware analysis, CTFs and practical security walkthroughs. I ignore the Minecraft stuff.
  • NahamSec ⭐ Bug bounty, CTF, and more. A lot of clickbait, but sometimes interesting.

Other tech news

  • TechLead ⭐ Watch out: as an ex-Google, ex-Facebook millionaire he’s known for controversial claims and drama, but he has some interesting takes on technology.
  • Marques Brownlee ⭐ Gadgets master. Fun to watch and learn about the general tech consumer market.
  • Linus Tech Tips ⭐ Hardware master, but a lot about gaming, which doesn’t interest me.
  • Lex Fridman ⭐ Interesting deep interviews with tech leaders, but unfortunately it became more political.
  • Pivot 💫 Focussed on US politics, technology and news. Entertaining to listen.

Others worth mentioning

  • StarTalk 💫 Focussed on science. Interesting explainers and interviews. US based.
  • Nerdland 💫 Focussed on science news. Monthly podcast. Belgium based.

Newsletters, blogs and feeds

This is where I do most of my day-to-day reading.

  • Hacker News (news.ycombinator.com) ⭐ The front page is still the best single signal for what the engineering world is discussing. Read it for the comments as much as the links.
  • Tweakers (tweakers.net) 💫 Daily newsletter: Dutch-language with tech news and reviews, best of its kind in Benelux.
  • Data News (datanews.knack.be) ⭐ Belgian IT and business-technology news. Useful for staying aware of what is happening in our local market and sector.
  • Kordon app (newsletter) 🌟 weekly newsletter that is very interesting. I don’t use the products, but I only consume the newsletter.

How I actually use this

A list like this is only useful if it does not overwhelm you. My approach:

  • Books are for depth. I read slowly and take notes — see my second brain post.
  • YouTube and podcasts are for breadth and energy. I keep the “watch all” channels in my subscriptions and let the rest surface by topic.
  • Newsletters and feeds are for the pulse. A daily skim of Hacker News and a couple of newsletters is enough to never be blindsided.

The goal is not to consume everything. It is to build a small, trusted set of sources and then spend the saved time actually building things.

What would you add or remove?