David Cone once said “Pitchers need to be students, forever students.”
As much as graduates might like to think about “being done all that learning,” I think it’s better to think of graduation as a “promotion” to a new style of learning.
One of the things I like about the end of the year is reviewing what I’ve learned and thinking through what I want to learn in the new year.
Here’s a list of books I’ve read in 2025 that I’ve found helpful and thought provoking on a professional level (I’m an eclectic reader so this is just a slice of my list). Incidentally, none of them were actually published in 2025!
- Bellotti, Marianne. 2021. Kill It with Fire. 1st edition. No Starch Press.
- Johnsson, Dan Bergh, Daniel Deogun, Daniel Sawano, and Daniel Terhorst-North. 2019. Secure by Design. Shelter Island, NY: Manning Publications Co.
- Maeda, John. 2006. The Laws of Simplicity. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
- Briggs, Caleb, and Rex Briggs. 2024. The AI Conundrum : Harnessing the Power of AI for Your Organization-Profitably and Safely. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
- Lopp, Michael. 2020. The Art of Leadership : Small Things, Done Well. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, Inc.
- Harris, Melissa, and Jenn Bane. 2024. Everybody Needs an Editor : The Essential Guide to Clear and Effective Writing. Edited by Mark Jacob. First Simon Element hardcover edition. New York: Simon Element.
- Cagan, Marty. 2018. Inspired : How to Create Tech Products Customers Love. Second edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
- Richards, Mark, and Neal Ford. 2020. Fundamentals of Software Architecture : An Engineering Approach. First edition. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, Inc.
What have you read in 2025?