Mentioned in Podcasts

Person

Every book Varun Mohan recommended on podcasts

Key facts

  • Varun Mohan has recommended or discussed 2 books on podcasts, as of May 7, 2025.
  • Varun Mohan has talked about books on 1 podcast, as of May 7, 2025.
  • Those books came up in 1 episode, as of May 7, 2025.
  • The 2 books Varun Mohan has mentioned in the most episodes, as of May 7, 2025: The Idea Factory and Showstopper!.
  • The latest episode with a book mention from Varun Mohan aired on May 7, 2025.

Updated

Guest on The Pragmatic Engineer · 2 books · 1 episode across 1 podcast

Varun Mohan appeared on The Pragmatic Engineer to discuss building Windsurf, sharing insights into engineering and historical tech innovations. When Gergely Orosz asked him for a book recommendation, Varun Mohan recommended Jon Gertner's The Idea Factory. He explained that he had read the book a long time ago and really enjoyed its account of how Bell Labs managed to drive massive innovation while operating as a commercial entity. Later in the episode, Varun Mohan brought up Showstopper! by G. Pascal Zachary while comparing the scale and complexity of Windsurf's engineering effort to Microsoft's historical work developing Windows NT. Through these references, Varun Mohan illustrated how accounts of past technological endeavors and massive engineering projects provided valuable perspective on modern software development and innovation cultures.

Books recommended by Varun Mohan

Who said what is determined automatically. In hand-checked samples, at least 6% of mentions were credited to the wrong speaker — sometimes an interviewer’s line recorded as the guest’s, sometimes the reverse. Every entry below quotes the words and links to the episode, so you can check it.

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  1. The Idea Factory

    Jon Gertner · Recommended · 1 episode

    The Idea Factory by Jon Gertner is a historical non-fiction book that chronicles the remarkable era of innovation at Bell Labs during the twentieth century.

    Recommended
    “You know, there was a book that I read a long time ago that I really enjoyed. Uh it's called The Idea Factory. It's basically about how Bell Labs uh kind of like innovated so much while being a very commercial entity”
    The Pragmatic Engineer Building Windsurf with Varun Mohan 2025-05-07 Listen at 1:26:33
    Where to get it
    AmazonListen on Audible

  2. Showstopper!

    G. Pascal Zachary · Discussed · 1 episode

    Discussed
    “one of the books that I read a while ago was this book called showstopper right and it's this book about how how Microsoft built Windows NG”
    The Pragmatic Engineer Building Windsurf with Varun Mohan 2025-05-07 Listen at 13:32
    Where to get it
    AmazonListen on Audible

Appearances

EpisodePodcastDateBooks
Building Windsurf with Varun MohanThe Pragmatic Engineer2025-05-072