At Didimo, we are in constant pursuit of learning, which is why we’re excited to share our summer reading list. (And we would appreciate it if you shared your recommendations in the comments below!) From novels to adventure to technical books, here is the summer tech reading you can’t miss. Gathered directly from our tech team, we’ve got your beach and vacation reading taken care of.
Want to dip your toes into tech but more interactively and engagingly than a simple manual?
The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win. In a fast-paced and entertaining style, this book delivers a story that anyone who works in IT will recognize. You will not only learn how to improve your own IT organizations, but you’ll never view IT the same way again.
Alba: an Open World Adventure Book. This is an adventure book, challenging your creativity and thinking outside the usual routes in tech. It is an innovative branching narrative gamebook, set in a desolate post-apocalyptic world, where each journey will be unique. Excited to find out how yours will end?
How about books to unlock your creativity? These titles will help you learn how to overcome any creative obstacles you may encounter.
Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration. Creativity, Inc. is a manual for anyone who strives for originality and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation. In some ways, Pixar movies are an object lesson in what creativity really is, hence, Catmull reveals the ideals and techniques that have made them widely admired—and so profitable.
A Technique for Producing Ideas. This book is a step-by-step technique for sparking breakthrough creativity! Professionals from poets and painters to scientists and engineers have used the techniques in this book to generate exciting ideas on demand, at any time, on any subject.
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. In this book, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi shares his investigations of "optimal experience" and that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and full involvement with life. We also recommend the sister title “Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention.”
Ready to dive into a bit more technical content? As you may already know, software development is all about having a unique mindset called agile. It is already your way of working, but you should also see it as your way of thinking and the following reading suggestions can help you see things from a different perspective.
The Lean Mindset: Ask the Right Questions. This book will show you how lean companies work and how a lean mindset is the key to creating stunning products and delivering amazing services through case studies and research.
Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit. This is the definitive, practical guide to estimating and planning agile projects. Concepts are clearly illustrated, and you will be guided, step by step, toward how to answer the following questions: What will we build? How big will it be? When must it be done? How much can I really complete by then? You will first learn what makes a good plan and then what makes it agile.
Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition. As an agile coach, you can help project teams become outstanding at agile, creating products that make them proud and helping organizations reap the powerful benefits of teams that deliver both innovation and excellence. Whether you’re an agile coach, leader, trainer, mentor, facilitator, Scrum Master, project manager, product owner, or team member, this book will help you become skilled at helping others become truly great.
And our reading list would not be complete without artificial intelligence, the technology behind Didimo’s solution, and much more...
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? This book breaks down a vast track of difficult intellectual terrain.
Did we miss a must-read? Let us know. We hope you enjoy these and your well-deserved time off this summer.