2025-12-23 08:00:00
Among the 50 books I read in 2025, I recommend the following 11 non-fiction and 7 fiction works (complete list here). These were the 18 books that I rated a four or five out of five stars.
This is the third or fourth time I've read this book and it has stood the test of time. It's been a few years since I last read it so it was a good reminder that a lot of the things I believe and tell people about writing actually just came from this book. The last 25% is a bit of a slog but nonetheless it remains one of the single books I think every professional should read. 5/5
I really like reading about how writers make their living. I've also been a modest fan of Asimov's works (I've loved what I've read I just haven't read that much). I also love to hear stories of first-generation immigrants to the US and also he lived in New York his whole life so it was quite enjoyable. 4/5
This was 100 years of the evolution of the film industry told basically entirely in disparate interviews edited together. 5/5
I love the history and business of newspapers and media. Moreover it's the guy that Citizen Kane was based on. 4/5
I have never learned about the history of Brazil and I found this introduction enjoyable. 4/5
I loved the retelling of human history focused on Persia (and later Iran). 4/5
I have never read about a supreme court justice before. This was a well-written biography and introduction to the history of law and law education. 4/5
Once again I love reading about newspapers and media and the business and history. This was told by the publisher of The Washington Post. 5/5
I've had this book about Warren Buffett on my shelf for nearly 10 years and finally went through it this year. A delightful and easy read despite the bulk. I only am unhappy that it focused more on family drama than on business decisions. Par for the course with biographies unfortunately. 4/5
This story spanned three or four major wars and a couple of continents. I didn't think I'd be interested in the history of luxury businesses but it has a lot in common with certain modern industries in tech too. You put premiums on relationships and building good faith and so on. 4/5
A history of Coca-Cola over the last 100 years or so. Lessons on how they dealt with competition (Pepsi and Keurig Dr. Pepper) and product revitalization (New Coke, Diet Coke, etc.). Quite an interesting read. 5/5
I got into horror fiction last year (not so much slashers but more just one of the better written categories of genre fiction). This book was one of my two favorite novels of the year.
It's a fictional retelling of American history where a Native American becomes a vampire and takes revenge on American colonizers in the American West. 5/5
This was my other favorite novel of the year. I am embarrassed not to have read it before. It's a dystopian story about the USA if all women were required to give birth to deal with a fertility crisis. 5/5
A French woman gets to live forever but everyone she meets forgets her after leaving her presence. An easy and enjoyable read. 4/5
I love a good vampire story, and I love fictional retellings using fantastical horror elements to emphasize atrocities. Vampires employed by the US military help the US in the 1840s take Texas from Mexico. 4/5
This was a cute cozy mystery about British witches forced to hide from society, learning how to accept themselves and develop trust in their community. 4/5
I am likewise embarrassed I have not read this before, nor anything else by Austen. I'm told I haven't rated it highly enough. I will undoubtedly reread it. I loved the wit. It required closer reading than I expected. 4/5
This was a retelling of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as told by the slave, Jim. If you saw the movie American Fiction a few years ago, it's the same author (of the original book). Everett has very interesting ideas and I look forward to reading more by him. 4/5
My 2025 year in books. 18 to recommend among the 50 I read. pic.twitter.com/mIcbPk7e5x
— Phil Eaton (@eatonphil) December 24, 2025
2025-11-26 08:00:00
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2025-11-03 08:00:00
One of the biggest lessons I learned early in my career was from Drew DeVault at Linode, 10 years ago. He was one of the youngest developers in the company (only I was younger, at 20, at the time) but he cared really strongly about thinking through architecture and code decisions when the culture at the time was, and I love those guys, a little haphazard.
Drew had no special position. We all had the same title, "Developer". But he argued so persuasively and so doggedly even when the entire organization seemed against him and somehow he eventually transformed the entire engineering organization.
That's supposed to be impossible! It was entirely new to me. That you don't need to wait behind people with more experience to make the right decision. That you can be part of making the right decision if you can find the logic and the will to do it.
It isn't that simple of course. Politics is politics. But there are plenty of companies with people who will make a good faith effort to do what makes sense but might, without someone's unasked-for effort, do not what makes sense but what is popular because what's popular just kinda seems easiest. And I always like working for these companies, and for the most part have been able to identify them during the interview process.
I learned from Drew to put limited value in seniority. I learned that it's ok to debate. I learned to be prepared and to try to present the facts. I learned to be persistent when I wanted change. I learned that with these skills, it's possible for an individual to redirect the path of an organization.
It took a while longer (and me driving one or two people on my team to quit, to my great regret) to learn when to do these things and when to let things go. Still, this lesson from Drew on what's possible always stands out in my memory. Thank you, Drew.
Drew DeVault taught me a really important lesson early in my career, that it's possible for a person to change the direction of an organization. pic.twitter.com/EGBRdbIjVO
— Phil Eaton (@eatonphil) November 3, 2025
2025-10-24 08:00:00
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2025-09-15 08:00:00
Sometimes I get asked questions that would be more fun to answer in public. All letters are treated as anonymous unless permission is otherwise granted.
Hey [Redacted]! It's great to hear from you. I'm very glad you joined the coffee club and met some good folks. :)
You asked how to learn about systems. A great question! I think I need to start first with what I mean when I say systems.
My definition of systems is all of the underlying software we developers use but are taught not to think about because they are so solid: our compilers and interpreters, our databases, our operating system, our browser, and so on. We think of them as basically not having bugs, we just count on them to be correct and fast enough so we can build the applications that really matter to users.
But 1) some developers do actually have to work on these fundamental blocks (compilers, databases, operating systems, browsers, etc.) and 2) it's not thaaaat hard to get into this development professionally and 3) even if you don't get into it professionally, having a better understanding of these fundamental blocks will make you a better application developer. At least I think so.
To get into systems I think it starts by you just questioning how each layer you build on works. Try building that layer yourself. For example you've probably used a web framework like Rails or Next.js. But you can just go and write that layer yourself too (for education).
And you've probably used Postgres or SQLite or DynamoDB. But you can also just go and write that layer yourself (for education). It's this habit of thinking and digging into the next lower layer that will get you into systems. Basically, not being satisfied with the black box.
I do not think there are many good books on programming in general, and very very few must-read ones, but one that I recommend to everybody is Designing Data Intensive Applications. I think it's best if you read it with a group of people. (My book club will read it in December when the 2nd edition comes out, you should join.) But this book is specific to data obviously and not interested in the fundamentals of other systems things like compilers or operating systems or browsers or so on.
Also, I see getting into this as a long-term thing. Throughout my whole career (almost 11 years now) I definitely always tried to dig into compilers and interpreters, I wrote and blogged about toy implementations a lot. And then 5 years ago I started digging into databases and saw that there was more career potential there. But it still took 4 years until I got my first job as a developer working on a database (the job I currently have).
Things take time to learn and that's ok! You have a long career to look forward to. And if you end up not wanting to dig into this stuff that's totally fine too. I think very few developers actually do. And they still have fine careers.
Anyway, I hope this is at least mildly useful. I hope you join the Software Internals Discord and nycsystems.xyz as well and look forward to seeing you at future coffee clubs!
Cheers,
Phil
I wrote a letter in response to a developer asking about how to learn systems. pic.twitter.com/2ILNpzl662
— Phil Eaton (@eatonphil) September 15, 2025
2025-09-10 08:00:00
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