Episode · The Pragmatic Engineer · 2026-02-04
Gergely Orosz & Grady Booch: books mentioned on The Pragmatic Engineer (Feb 2026)
The third golden age of software engineering – thanks to AI, with Grady Booch
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Grady Booch recommended The Sciences of the Artificial by Herbert Alexander Simon, and discussed What the Dormouse Said by John Markoff and The society of mind by Marvin Minsky.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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What the Dormouse Said
What the Dormouse Said by John Markoff investigates the countercultural and psychedelic roots of the personal computer revolution in Silicon Valley.
Discussed“There's a delightful book called what the doormouse said which posits that the rise of the personal computer was also tied together with the rise of the hippie counterculture.”
Where to get it
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The Sciences of the Artificial
The Sciences of the Artificial by Herbert Alexander Simon is a foundational academic work that examines the nature of complex systems, artificial intelligence, and human problem-solving within engineered environments.
Recommended“go read the work of of Simon and Newell in the the sciences of the artificial. Uh there's a whole set of work that's come out on complexity and systems from the Santa Fe Institute.”
Where to get it
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The society of mind
The Society of Mind by Marvin Minsky is a seminal theoretical work that models the human mind as a collection of diverse, interacting agents and capabilities.
Discussed“Taking ideas of Marvin Minsky society of mind which is a way of of systems architecting multiple agents. We're in agent programming now which I think people are just beginning to tap upon how those things apply.”
Where to get it
