avatarEdward Huang

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Books That I will be Reading in 2024

Books to Be a Better Product Engineer

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

I recently joined X (Twitter) and plan to share more about my daily learning and insights, not just related to my software engineering career, but also about my investments, money, and my exploratory year on entrepreneurship. If you’re interested in following my journey and receiving some bite-sized tips on becoming a better growth engineer, as well as updates on any side projects join me here.

My goal for 2024 is to increase my chances of recognizing luck by exposing myself to opportunities and skill stacking to become a unique engineer. By reading more books, you have the chance to learn from mentors from all around the world and be able to navigate through your career and journey more effectively.

Here are a couple of concrete goals that I have in mind:

  • Being More Product-Minded
  • Being a Better Communicator
  • Navigating Entrepreneurship And Building in Public

What is skill stacking?

I was listening to a Podcast, Diary of CEO when Steve Barrett interviewed Shopify President Harley Finkelstein. One story Harley mentioned was when his mentor encouraged him to go to law school right after college, not to become a lawyer but a better entrepreneur.

He said that to be exceptionally good, you must understand your “Spiky Point.” Spiky points are not obvious but rare. To sharpen your point, you have to do something that is not obvious. Finding more alpha in entrepreneurship is something unique that everyone is not looking at.

You are a good entrepreneur. You are not sophisticated and do not understand all these aspects of entrepreneurship. You should go to law school and, be selfish in law school in your curriculum, and drive as much insight as possible. So, when you leave law school, you can return to entrepreneurship as a better version of yourself.

It also happened when Steve Jobs was in Typography Class, which led him to be able to design a beautiful Macintosh user interface.

There are various books that I have always wanted to read but didn’t get to and books that are relevant to me in my current career. I want to share with you about the five books that I will be reading this year:

Inspired

Screenshot Front Cover for Inspired

Why will I read this book?

Inspired helps frame the mindset of all readers on how a product manager thinks. This is conducive for all product engineers who want to make a bigger impact on their team and company. Many engineers in big companies have been conditioned to listen to product managers from the top-down approach without questioning the product definition and the goal in the first place.

This book will help engineers understand feature prioritization and see an impact from a product perspective. As a result, this will also help increase your impact to become not only a person who knows deep on the technology but also increases your impact on your line of business.

Scaling People

Screenshot front cover for scaling people

Why will I read this book?

People ask me about my future career, “Would you want to stay as an IC or go into management?” I haven’t been able to answer those questions before because the divergence of the career path is far ahead. However, as I became the team’s senior member, I realized that managing people is a skill set that most engineers only adopt once they are told to do so.

This book was recommended by one of my colleagues, and it helps understand and better manage people in a high-growth startup environment. Being able to scale operations effectively in a high-growth environment is paramount to the company’s growth, and this book lays the foundation for an empathetic guide to management.

Launch

Screenshot front cover for Launch

Why will I read this book?

Confession: I bought this book last year in 2023 but didn’t get to read it.

This book is not an engineering book or a book about software engineer. This book is about how to start your own business one day and the mindset that gets you to start on that journey. As I am always interested in pursuing entrepreneurship one day, this book will help set up the mindset on how to sell anything online.

As a software engineer, reading a marketing business book helps me understand an owner’s and business’s mindset. As everything you do in your day-to-day job comes down to business, reading a business book helps you think of the feature and product you are building as its own business. For instance, if your customer is an internal team, a bigger win will be to think about what makes your customer happy using the product instead of how to make the system faster. No matter how fast the product is internally, you fail as a product owner if you cannot capture your customer’s heart.

Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away

Screenshot front cover for Quit

Why will I read this book?

The title intrigued me when I first encountered this book in Barnes & Noble. Most societies told us to work harder and persevere but didn’t answer the questions about when to quit.

This book helps give a perspective on the fundamental mindset of when to quit.

Think Faster Talk Smarter

Screenshot front cover for Think Faster Talk Smarter

Why do I read this book?

As you move up the corporate ladder, you realize that being good in technical skills can be a great skill set, but it doesn’t make you stand out.

One way to stand out and raise your market value is by being merely good-not extraordinary-at more than one skill. It is to acquire skills completely different from your role but impactful in your career success. One of those for technology leaders is leaders who are good not only in technical skills but also in communication skills. It is sometimes hard to find someone who can code and is also an exceptional storyteller and visionary.

As Scott Adam mentioned in his book, How to Fail At Most Everything and Still Win Big, “ Successwise, you’re better off being good at two complementary skills than being excellent at one. I’m ignoring the outlier possibility that you might be one of the best performers in the world at some skill or another. That can be valuable, too.”

Many of the company’s staff engineers are not only good in their technical skills, but they also have a spiky point that predicated their role, either their communication or operation management skills.

This is one of my biggest feedbacks in 2023, and reading this book can lay the foundation for becoming a better communicator.

Conclusion

My 2024 goal is to become an exceptional engineer by seizing opportunities through skill stacking. I plan to become more product-oriented, a better communicator, and skilled in entrepreneurship while building in public. Skill stacking is crucial for diverse knowledge. I’ll sharpen my “ Spiky Point” and uncover unique perspectives that differentiate me in engineering.

My journey entails continuous learning, exposure to diverse opportunities, intentional skill stacking, navigating the dynamic landscape of engineering, making meaningful contributions to my teams, and pursuing entrepreneurial ventures.

P.S. None of these are affiliate links; these are the books that I truly will be reading this year. I posted here to share some great books I discovered and hold myself accountable for such a plan.

What are some books that are good for becoming a better product engineer? Post them in the comment section below!

Originally published at https://pathtosenior.substack.com.

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