Two books I think every developer should read: 'The Design and Evolution of C++' by Bjarne Stroustrup 'The Old New Thing: Practical Development Throughout the

Two books I think every developer should read: 'The Design and Evolution of C++' by Bjarne Stroustrup 'The Old New Thing: Practical Development Throughout the Evolution of Windows' by Raymond Chen (you could just read through his blog, book I quite enjoyed having a book). What I feel these books really helped with was understanding how a large complex real-world system, designed and maintained by clever people, can end up with so many weird features, and how the smallest things can end up being problems the dog you for decades. These are the only two books I am aware of that make an attempt at discussing how some big complex systems (C++ and Windows) ended up how they are, and tell some interesting stories of how various features arose, and why others didn't.