Person
Every book Charity Majors recommended on podcasts
Key facts
- Charity Majors has recommended or discussed 4 books on podcasts, as of August 12, 2026.
- Charity Majors has talked about books on 1 podcast, as of August 12, 2026.
- Those books came up in 2 episodes, as of August 12, 2026.
- The 3 books Charity Majors has mentioned in the most episodes, as of August 12, 2026: Catastrophe Ethics, Fluke and More everything forever.
- The latest episode with a book mention from Charity Majors aired on August 12, 2026.
Updated
Charity Majors appeared on The Pragmatic Engineer podcast to discuss development practices, observability, and artificial intelligence. During her appearances, she recommended and discussed several thought-provoking books. Majors recommended Travis Rieder's Catastrophe Ethics, noting that she got a great deal out of it as a thoughtful treatment of ethical choices and the difficulty of deciding how to respond to large-scale problems, despite acknowledging it might be viewed as a pop philosophy book by purists. She also recommended Adam Becker's More Everything Forever, explaining that she continually suggests it because it provides a strong critique of beliefs surrounding the technological singularity, effective altruism, accelerationism, and endless growth. Responding to a request for a meaningful nonfiction recommendation for software engineers, she suggested Brian Klaas's Fluke, detailing why she found personal meaning in its exploration of chance, chaos, and why everything we do matters. Additionally, Majors discussed her co-authored book, Observability Engineering, outlining its structural parts and how it helps practitioners grapple with running both deterministic and non-deterministic systems.
Books recommended by Charity Majors
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Catastrophe Ethics
Catastrophe Ethics by Travis Rieder is a philosophical exploration of moral decision-making in the face of massive, systemic crises.
Recommended“really got a lot out of Catastrophe Ethics. It's not I haven't seen it mentioned many places and I think it might be I think real philosophy nerds would be like, "That's kind of a pop book, you know?"”
Where to get it
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Fluke
Fluke by Brian Klaas explores how chance, chaos, and unpredictable events shape our lives and societal trajectories.
Recommended“the book is called fluke uh by Brian Claus fluke chance chaos and why everything we do matters I'm not a religious person but I do like really look for ways of having meaning in my life”
Where to get it
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More everything forever
More Everything Forever by Adam Becker is a critical science and technology book that examines Silicon Valley culture, space empires, and the ideological underpinnings of endless growth.
Recommended“Number two, this is a book that I recommended a couple times, but I'm just going to keep recommending it cuz it's so good. It's by Adam Becker, and it's called More Everything Forever.”
Where to get it
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Observability Engineering
Observability Engineering by Charity Majors, Liz Fong-Jones, and George Miranda is a comprehensive technical guide on monitoring and managing complex software systems.
Discussed“It's got six parts. So, the first part is and I wrote parts one and six. First part is just kind of like grappling with what does it mean to run deterministic and non-deterministic systems, you know?”
Where to get it
Books Charity Majors wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stop being skeptical about AI for development with Charity Majors | The Pragmatic Engineer | 2026-08-12 | 3 |
| Observability: the present and future, with Charity Majors | The Pragmatic Engineer | 2025-01-22 | 1 |