Books like The Cathedral and the Bazaar

01

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution

Steven Levy · Science

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution is Steven Levy's account of the community of computer enthusiasts who drove the digital revolution from the late 1950s through the early 1980s — the original hackers of MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club and later AI lab, the hardware hackers of the Bay Area Homebrew Computer Club, and the software entrepreneurs who built the early PC industry.

A kindred science read.

02

Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software

Charles Petzold · Science

Code is Charles Petzold's explanation of how computers work, built from first principles.

A kindred science read.

03

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

Peter Thiel · Business

Zero to One began as notes from a Stanford course Thiel taught on startups in 2012, assembled into a book with co-author Blake Masters.

A kindred science read.

04

The Master Algorithm

Pedro Domingos · Science

The Master Algorithm is Pedro Domingos's survey of machine learning — the field of computer science that creates algorithms capable of learning from data — organized around a central speculative thesis: that there exists, or may be found, a single master algorithm from which all learning can be derived.

A kindred science read.

05

A Pattern Language

Christopher Alexander · Science

A Pattern Language is an extraordinary attempt to describe, in systematic form, the conditions that make human habitats feel alive.

Both dig into community.

06

Happy City

Charles Montgomery · Science

Happy City is Charles Montgomery's investigation into the relationship between the design of cities and the psychological well-being of their inhabitants.

Both dig into community.

07

A Man Called Ove

Fredrik Backman · Contemporary fiction

A Man Called Ove opens in a Swedish suburb where a fifty-nine-year-old man named Ove has just been forced into early retirement.

Both dig into community.

08

Category Creation: How to Build a Brand That Customers, Employees, and Investors Will Love

Anthony Kennada · Business

Category Creation is Anthony Kennada's account of how Gainsight, where he served as chief marketing officer, built the customer success management category from scratch — and the broader argument that this approach to marketing, creating a new market category rather than competing within an existing one, produces compounding advantages that conventional brand-building rarely matches.

Both dig into community.

09

Freakonomics

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner · Economics

Freakonomics is economist Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen Dubner's argument that economics — properly understood as the study of incentives — can explain things that look, on the surface, like they have nothing to do with money.

Both dig into incentives.

10

Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream

H. G. Bissinger · Memoir

Friday Night Lights is H.

Both dig into community.

11

My Own Country: A Doctor's Story

Abraham Verghese · Memoir

My Own Country is Abraham Verghese's account of his years as an infectious disease specialist in Johnson City, Tennessee, during the early years of the AIDS epidemic.

Both dig into community.

12

Servant Leadership

Robert K. Greenleaf · Business

Servant Leadership is Robert Greenleaf's foundational essay collection arguing that the best leaders start not with the desire to lead but with the desire to serve — and that this reversal of priority produces qualitatively different leadership.

Both dig into community.