In the Time of AI, Don’t Forget About Books

In the era of rapid development of artificial intelligence, people in general — and developers in particular — have begun to forget that there is more to life than just “ChatGPT-ing,” Googling, or endlessly taking online courses. You can also simply read a book.

Of course, it’s difficult for publishers to release books on modern technologies that can compete with the internet and AI. (Even five years ago, I read that by the time a tech book is published, it’s already hopelessly outdated. And in 2025, such a book may become outdated even before it’s written.)

However, no matter what developers say, technical literature is not the only kind of literature in the world. There are many books worth reading — and developers are no exception.

In my top categories of books worth spending time on, I would include:

• literature about the basic principles of science,

• literature on psychology and soft skills,

• and fiction.

When I say literature about the basic principles of science, I mean not only Jon Kleinberg and Éva Tardos with their “Algorithms: Design and Analysis”, but also, for example, books on application architecture, design, and other high-level concepts. And of course, we should not forget about universal topics and foundational principles. Books about how the world and its parts are structured help us understand the underlying patterns on which the world is built. And that’s far more important than just knowing how to configure a message broker for a microservices application.

For example, Brené Brown starts her book “The Gifts of Imperfection” with the line:
“Once you see a pattern, you can’t unsee it.”
Once you recognize a principle or a pattern, it stays with you forever. And books about basic principles teach us to see such patterns.

The second type of books that are a must-read are books on psychology and soft skills. Yes, nowadays psychologists have become the new rock stars (and for those who don’t know what a rock star is — think of AI developers in the programming world right now). Yes, psychology may seem to some like a scam or self-help nonsense. Yes, our parents never went to psychologists, and yet they somehow managed to raise us. All of this is true, and it all exists and has its place.

But at the same time, there are many books that open your eyes to what’s happening inside yourself: Why am I like this? Why can’t I do something others seem to manage easily? Why do I feel unlucky? How do I deal with it? And so on. Each of us has our own pain, our own joy, our own “bugs.” And if you feel okay, then maybe you don’t need it. But if something is stopping you from being happy, there’s always a book (and later a person) that can help you find a solution.

Moreover, almost every university programming course begins with a professor saying that besides hard skills, you must also develop soft skills: communication, networking, negotiation, building long-term relationships, handling stress, etc.

Personally, six years ago, I thought all of that was nonsense. I believed I should just learn programming languages, practice writing code, and improve my English — and the soft skills would somehow take care of themselves. But then I had to break into IT at the age of 35, competing with third-year students, negotiating salaries, networking with other IT people who later gave me referrals, building relationships in teams with very different people (I’ve worked with all kinds), navigating emigration, building a new life from scratch, being both the one who fires and the one who gets fired, and so much more.

And at those times, these books helped — they opened my eyes, kept me paddling forward, and kept me from capsizing the boat. So, whatever opinion you may hold about psychology and soft-skills books, sometimes it’s worth paying attention to them.

And finally, the last category of must-read literature is fiction. Fiction is powerful because it allows you to experience someone else’s life without actually living it yourself. In other words, you can gain experience without going through the situation firsthand. Fiction also entertains and brings joy, expands vocabulary, builds new neural connections in the brain, and much more.

As Ekaterina Shulman says:
“Fiction is the highest expression of the human spirit. It is our mother, our nourisher, and our support for all the days of our lives.”

That’s enough for today. In my next post, I’ll talk about HOW to read professional literature so that:

• it’s fast,

• the information gets neatly organized in your mind,

• and it stays in your head for a long time (or forever).

  #Programming #Developers #SoftSkills #Books #CodeAndMind

  PS I’m looking a book about basic principles of life, but not related with IT. Recommend me something on this topic.