Four Bestselling AI + Programming Books That Will Change Your Understanding of Tech

Programming has been permanently transformed by AI.

And programming is the foundation of everything we do.

Not only is software used to design and manage all of our processes - the fact is so general and universal there's no simpler way to put it - but it is also used to directly design and understand our physical world as well, in everything from materials science to real-time traffic management to how airplanes fly and wars are fought.

This profound change to programming is a profound change to our world, but it's important to understand that it isn't a finite event, something you can learn once and rest upon as you go forward.

The nature of programming itself has changed, and the nature of our understanding of it has to change.

As important as this fact is for people who work in areas that involve devising new technologies, products, and services directly, understanding it will be a requirement for success for every business leader going forward, too.

Understanding this transformation will be key to competing in everything.

We've seen this at Leanpub in the recent, groundbreaking work published by some of our bestselling authors.

In this post we're going to highlight four books that point in the direction we're going.

Patterns of Application Development Using AI by Obie Fernandez

About the Book

Patterns of Application Development Using AI is a groundbreaking book that explores the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and application development. In this book, Obie Fernandez, a renowned software developer and co-founder of AI-powered consultant platform Olympia, shares his invaluable insights and experiences from a year-long journey of building an AI-powered application.

Listen to an audio overview of the book

Through a compelling combination of narrative chapters and practical pattern references, Obie presents a comprehensive guide to leveraging the power of large language models (LLMs) in application development. He introduces innovative patterns such as the "Multitude of Workers," "Self-Healing Data," and "Contextual Content Generation," which empower developers to build intelligent, adaptive, and user-centric applications.

Unlike other books on AI that focus on theoretical concepts or delve into the intricacies of machine learning algorithms, this book takes a pragmatic approach. It provides concrete examples, real-world use cases, and actionable advice on how to integrate AI components and functions into application architectures. Obie shares his successes, challenges, and lessons learned, offering a unique perspective on the practical application of AI in software development.

About the Author

Obie Fernandez began his career as a professional programmer in the early ’90s. From Java to Ruby, Lean Startup, Serverless, and now AI, Obie’s expertise and forward-thinking attitude has consistently placed him on the bleeding edge of innovation. As the author of "The Rails Way," his contributions to the Ruby on Rails community are widely recognized and respected. Obie’s role as CTO on the founding team of Andela, along with successful entrepreneurial exits, underscores his leadership and business acumen. His latest venture, Olympia, provides AI-powered virtual staffing startup. Obie’s creativity extends into the world of electronic music production and DJ’ing. He has found success in the techno, trance, and progressive house genres, playing at large EDM festivals, and releasing music on reputable labels since 2018.

Watch the Leanpub Launch Video for Patterns of Application Development Using AI by Obie Fernandez

The Architect’s Paradox: Uncertainty and the Philosophy of Software Architecture by Barry O’Reilly

About the Book

How do we make decisions as software architects? How do we create the conceptual structures that drive our architectures? Most architects cannot even begin to answer this question. The Architect’s Paradox is an investigation of the underlying philosophical beliefs of software architects. The book compares the journey of ideas in software to the journey in Western philosophy and reveals the default philosophy that most architects aren’t even aware they carry with them. It then asks what we can do that’s different, that moves architect forward beyond traditional thinking. 

This book provides many chances to think about your own architectural practice, how you think, how you relate your software to the real world. It also serves as an introduction to philosophy for software architects who want a relatable way to get started, with every thinker and idea linked to challenges of building software systems.

About the Author

Barry is a veteran architect and PhD student in the area of Complexity Science and Software Design.

Watch the Leanpub Launch Video for The Architect’s Paradox: Uncertainty and the Philosophy of Software Architecture

AI Assisted Programming by Michael Feathers

About the Book

LLM-based technologies are being used nearly everywhere. In software development, they are starting to impact the way that we create, understand and modify code.

About the Author

Michael Feathers is the Founder and Director of R7K Research & Conveyance, a company specializing in software and organization design. Prior to forming R7K, Michael was the Chief Scientist of Obtiva and a consultant with Object Mentor International. Over the past 20 years he has consulted with hundreds of organizations, supporting them with general software design issues, process change and code revitalization. A frequent presenter at national and international conferences, Michael is also the author of the book Working Effectively with Legacy Code.

Watch the Full Leanpub Podcast Interview with Michael Feathers, Author of AI Assisted Programming

The Art of Effortless Programming: Unleashing the Power of AI Driven Development by Eric Elliott

About the Book

Transform your software creation process with AI Driven Development (AIDD). Learn to harness AI to generate programs, unlocking 10x - 20x productivity gains while building components, tests, and documentation. Written for software engineers, product managers, code conjurers and aspiring tinkerers, this book teaches you to express complex functional requirements using natural language with the precision of code, utilizing SudoLang - a language designed specifically for communicating ideas to AI language models. You'll learn to streamline your workflow, reduce code complexity, and craft more intelligent, responsive applications that adapt to user needs.Design and implement AI-powered applications using SudoLang, and any common programming language or framework. Examples will use JavaScript, Next.js, and React.

About the Author

Eric Elliott is a Webby-nominated software engineering expert, author, and creator of SudoLang, an AI programming language. With over 10 years of experience deploying AI models at scale to millions of users, he built and trained production AI models, and was an early pioneer of prompt engineering and AI Driven Development (AIDD). He has served as an engineering manager working on Generative AI for Adobe Firefly, tech lead on a social video AI app spun out of Stanford Research Institute, and a JavaScript expert and consultant on software development productivity and AIDD.

Watch the Full Leanpub Podcast Interview with Eric Elliott, Author of The Art of Effortless Programming