Kill It with Fire

An important book on software engineering

The book was a little difficult to read as it felt that the author was jumping between different topics. It slowly becomes clear how the topics are related. This is one of those books where a re-read becomes necessary.

That said, the subject material is very valuable as it is driven from real world stories. All these stories are contextual but there is enough diversity here so that at least one of these would be helpful in your case, as long as it is about managing a complex and large software system.

Despite the difficulty, it is a must-read book.

The entertaining structure of the book briefs you on any topic starting from tech history - how the ancient hardware still affects/shapes modern solutions, to psychology and biases - mere exposure effect, confirmation bias, and my favorite: humans as pattern-matching machines.
The book will be interesting to everyone involved in the development cycle with more focus on management philosophy.
The key takeaway is not to fear turning off the component in question and observing the meltdown. But in all seriousness, it has a lot to offer and substance to think through.

Who is this book for? It assumes a deep technical understanding and explains really basic things at random times. Like we've already talked about monoliths why is there a several page description of what they are six chapters in.

This is a fascinating read for anyone in the software development space. The lessons and take-aways I have from this book will stay with me throughout my career. If you are serious about software development and do not have the luxury of staying in greedfield projects your entire career, you need to pick up this book.