[Zero Two]

Technical books that are worth reading not just for the specific knowledge but for how they changed your mental models.

Software engineering:

• A Philosophy of Software Design (Ousterhout) - the best book on software design I've read. Argues against complexity as a first principle. Much more practically useful than Clean Code IMO.
  
• The Pragmatic Programmer - still relevant despite being old. The mindset chapters hold up.
  
• Staff Engineer (Larson) - if you're thinking about senior technical roles without management track, this is the clearest map I've found.
  

Systems and infrastructure:

• Designing Data-Intensive Applications (Kleppmann) - mandatory reading for anyone working on backend systems. The chapter on consistency models alone is worth the price.
  
• The Linux Command Line (Shotts) - free online, best intro to Linux and shell scripting available.
  

Broader thinking:

• The Innovators (Isaacson) - history of computing, readable narrative, puts modern tech in context
  
• Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution (Levy) - the original hacker culture, still relevant and fascinating
  
• The Soul of a New Machine (Kidder) - 1981, follows a hardware engineering team building a minicomputer under pressure. Could have been written about any tech project today.
  

What technical books have stuck with you?