5 ms·

Martin deserves every penny of his hard-work on Designing Data Intensive Applications. Experienced engineers can easily use the book as a reference and you can

Martin deserves every penny of his hard-work on Designing Data Intensive Applications. Experienced engineers can easily use the book as a reference and you can give the book to smart junior engineers to give them a great foundation. Honestly, the best technical book I’ve ever owned.

henrik_w 6y ago
I agree - a fantastic book! I have written a longish summary/review of it, including the reasons why I liked it so much: https://henrikwarne.com/2019/07/27/book-review-designing-data-intensive-applications/ https://henrikwarne.com/2019/07/27/book-review-designing-dat...
redisman 6y ago
Absolutely. It's the only technical book I can't stop thinking about and going back to because of how impressive and informative it is.
_____s 6y ago
Agreed. I'm reading it just now and it is really high quality. Just the chapter on transactions is probably the best explanation of a single topic that I've read in any technical book. It's really good for such a complex topic—thorough while still being very readable!
ponker 6y ago
I mean if you agree with the math of creating $80m in value it would be hard to argue that he doesn't deserve $500K of that.
commandlinefan 6y ago
> the best technical book I’ve ever owned. Second-best, second only to Aurélien Géron’s machine learning book. ;)
st1x7 6y ago
Can someone expand on why the book is so good? I found it very unremarkable but it's recommended so much around here that I suspect that I've missed something important.
- detaro 6y ago
  Seems many people haven't been exposed to a systematic overview of the topic otherwise, and it works great at providing that. At least that'd be my guess where your experience differs.
- frant-hartm 6y ago
  Just out of interest. What technical book do you find remarkable?
- mixmastamyk 6y ago
  Unremarkable if you're in that field with experience. If you're one of the majority of developers working around the edges or new to the subject it is quite enlightening.
- papaf 6y ago
  Can someone expand on why the book is so good? Its a practical overview of a difficult and modern topic. That in itself would make the book good, but for me, it is that the book goes deeper into the research and algorithms than most O'Reilly books -- but it does this without becoming a Science textbook. It is easy to tell the people working in big data that haven't read the book, just from the mistakes they make.
- libraryofbabel 6y ago
  Did you find it unremarkable because you already know the material, or because the material isn't relevant to what you do? Anyway, some reasons: * Draws together a wealth of material on databases and distributed systems that wasn't explained in a systematic, accessible way anywhere else. It provides a map to someone coming to this hard-to-navigate area for the first time. * Great balance between being conversant with the academic research (without being too abstract) and being practically applicable (without being too tied to details of particular technologies) * Shows underlying unity and concepts of very different data technologies, e.g. why classic relational database write-ahead logs and replication are very similar to streaming platforms like Kafka * Subjective, but it is very clear, accessible, and well-written. This is very very hard to do and quite rare in technical books. It's my favorite technical book of the decade and my first recommendation to anyone who asks me how to really "level up" as a senior engineer.
avinassh 6y ago
On similar topic, what are some good books like DDIA?
jwr 6y ago
Very much so. I wish there were more books like that. Heavy on content, light on dogma, with very well weighted opinions and suggestions. Excellent book!

henrik_w 6y ago

I agree - a fantastic book! I have written a longish summary/review of it, including the reasons why I liked it so much: https://henrikwarne.com/2019/07/27/book-review-designing-data-intensive-applications/ https://henrikwarne.com/2019/07/27/book-review-designing-dat...

redisman 6y ago

Absolutely. It's the only technical book I can't stop thinking about and going back to because of how impressive and informative it is.

_____s 6y ago

Agreed. I'm reading it just now and it is really high quality. Just the chapter on transactions is probably the best explanation of a single topic that I've read in any technical book. It's really good for such a complex topic—thorough while still being very readable!

ponker 6y ago

I mean if you agree with the math of creating $80m in value it would be hard to argue that he doesn't deserve $500K of that.

commandlinefan 6y ago

> the best technical book I’ve ever owned. Second-best, second only to Aurélien Géron’s machine learning book. ;)

st1x7 6y ago

Can someone expand on why the book is so good? I found it very unremarkable but it's recommended so much around here that I suspect that I've missed something important.

detaro 6y ago
Seems many people haven't been exposed to a systematic overview of the topic otherwise, and it works great at providing that. At least that'd be my guess where your experience differs.
frant-hartm 6y ago
Just out of interest. What technical book do you find remarkable?
mixmastamyk 6y ago
Unremarkable if you're in that field with experience. If you're one of the majority of developers working around the edges or new to the subject it is quite enlightening.
papaf 6y ago
Can someone expand on why the book is so good? Its a practical overview of a difficult and modern topic. That in itself would make the book good, but for me, it is that the book goes deeper into the research and algorithms than most O'Reilly books -- but it does this without becoming a Science textbook. It is easy to tell the people working in big data that haven't read the book, just from the mistakes they make.
libraryofbabel 6y ago
Did you find it unremarkable because you already know the material, or because the material isn't relevant to what you do? Anyway, some reasons: * Draws together a wealth of material on databases and distributed systems that wasn't explained in a systematic, accessible way anywhere else. It provides a map to someone coming to this hard-to-navigate area for the first time. * Great balance between being conversant with the academic research (without being too abstract) and being practically applicable (without being too tied to details of particular technologies) * Shows underlying unity and concepts of very different data technologies, e.g. why classic relational database write-ahead logs and replication are very similar to streaming platforms like Kafka * Subjective, but it is very clear, accessible, and well-written. This is very very hard to do and quite rare in technical books. It's my favorite technical book of the decade and my first recommendation to anyone who asks me how to really "level up" as a senior engineer.

avinassh 6y ago

On similar topic, what are some good books like DDIA?

jwr 6y ago

Very much so. I wish there were more books like that. Heavy on content, light on dogma, with very well weighted opinions and suggestions. Excellent book!