Year in Review: Books I read (listened to) in 2025
Key Reads on AI Systems, Data Science, Leadership, and Scaling Teams
I started my 2025 with a simple goal for my reading list. To get better about the world AI is creating. I wanted to know how the technology works, how to build with it, and, just as importantly, how to be a better leader and person while doing so.
Links to my 2024 and 2023 reading list.
From the 50+ books I read, a select group stood out for their exceptional clarity, actionable insights, and profound impact on my professional mindset.
Designing Machine Learning Systems: An Iterative Process for Production-Ready Applications by Chip Huyen: This is the definitive manual for moving from experimental Jupyter notebooks to robust, production-grade ML systems. It masterfully breaks down the iterative lifecycle—from data management and model training to deployment and monitoring—providing the architectural clarity needed to build systems that are not just clever, but reliable and scalable. Link
Designing Distributed Systems: Patterns and Paradigms for Scalable, Reliable Systems Using Kubernetes, 2nd Edition by Brendan Burns: In the era of cloud-native applications, this book is an indispensable guide. It provides battle-tested patterns and paradigms for building systems on Kubernetes that are scalable, resilient, and manageable, translating complex distributed computing concepts into actionable engineering decisions. Link
Building AI-Powered Products: The Essential Guide to AI and GenAI Product Management by Luis G. De La Puente & Jesus Serrano: This book directly addresses the unique discipline of AI product management. It moves beyond the hype to offer a concrete framework for defining AI product vision, managing the probabilistic nature of ML features, and navigating the full product lifecycle, essential for turning AI capability into customer value. Link
AI Engineering: Building Applications with Foundation Models by Chip Huyen: As foundation models become the new building blocks, this book is a crucial guide to the next frontier. It focuses on the practical engineering of applications using these powerful models, covering integration, orchestration, and customization in a way that is immediately useful for developers and technical leaders. Link
Agentic Artificial Intelligence: Harnessing AI Agents to Reinvent Business, Work, and Life by Maxime Vermeir: This book looks past today’s chatbots to the next wave: AI agents that can autonomously execute complex workflows. It provides a visionary yet practical exploration of how agentic AI will reinvent business processes and work, making it a must-read for strategists planning for the near future. Link
Data Science for Business: What You Need to Know about Data Mining and Data-Analytic Thinking by Foster Provost & Tom Fawcett: This is the classic that teaches the mindset of data science. It’s not about coding syntax, but about “data-analytic thinking”—how to extract useful knowledge and business value from data, forming the best foundation for any leader to communicate effectively with data teams. View on.amazon.in
Leading Effective Engineering Teams: Lessons for Individual Contributors and Managers from 10 Years at Google by Addy Osmani: Packed with hard-earned wisdom from Google, this book is a treasure trove for both new and experienced managers. It covers everything from mentorship and project execution to managing your own career trajectory, offering concise, powerful lessons that are directly applicable. Link
The Engineering Leader: Strategies for Scaling Teams and Yourself by Cate Huston: This book excels at addressing the personal and strategic challenges of tech leadership. It provides empathetic and practical frameworks for scaling your influence, managing your time, and making the critical transition from hands-on contributor to a leader who amplifies the work of an entire team. Link
Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don’t, Rockefeller Habits 2.0 by Verne Harnish: Based on the proven Rockefeller Habits, this is the operating manual for growing a company. It provides a disciplined, practical system for aligning strategy, execution, cash flow, and people—a no-nonsense guide for leadership teams navigating the chaos of growth. Link
Everyday Leadership: A Guide to Developing Your Mindset as a Leader by John C. Maxwell: This book distils leadership into daily, actionable principles. It’s a powerful reminder that leadership is a choice made in small moments, not just a title, and serves as a timeless guide for developing the character and mindset that forms the foundation of all effective leadership. Link
The Sweaty Startup: How to Get Rich Doing Boring Things by Alex Hormozi: This book offers a brutally honest and refreshing counter-narrative to venture-backed Silicon Valley glamour. It champions the path of relentless execution in “boring” businesses, focusing on profit, process, and customer value as the real engines of wealth creation. Link
Who Says?: Question Everything and Discover the Genius of Thinking Differently by Mike Byster: A toolkit for intellectual independence, this book provides practical exercises to break free from conventional thinking patterns and cultivate genuine creativity. It’s a powerful resource for problem-solvers and innovators in any field. Link
Hyper-Learning: How to Adapt to the Speed of Change by Edward D. Hess: In a world of constant change, the ability to learn rapidly and effectively is the ultimate competitive advantage. This book combines neuroscience and practical methods to teach how to quiet the ego, manage anxiety, and cultivate the mindset required to be a perpetual learner. Link
You, Happier: The 7 Neuroscience Secrets of Feeling Good Based on Your Brain Type by Daniel G. Amen, M.D.: This book grounds the pursuit of well-being in brain science. By exploring the concept of brain typology, it offers personalized strategies for optimizing mood and performance, moving beyond one-size-fits-all advice to a more nuanced understanding of mental health. Link
Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Glucose, Metabolism and Limitless Health by Casey Means, M.D. & Calley Means: This book brilliantly connects metabolic health to overall vitality. It translates complex science around glucose and metabolism into clear, actionable steps for improving energy, focus, and long-term health, making it an incredibly valuable read for optimizing physical foundations for high performance. Link
The Complete 2025 Reading List (Categorized)
AI & Machine Learning
Mastering Large Language Models: An Essential Guide to Understanding and Implementing AI by Sebastian Raschka: A comprehensive guide to the architecture, training, and practical implementation of modern large language models. Link
AI First, Human Always: Embracing a New Mindset for the Era of Superintelligence by David R. Hardoon, Jose Parra-Moyano: Explores the philosophical and strategic shift required to integrate powerful AI while keeping human values and judgment at the core. Link
The Experimentation Machine: Finding Product-Market Fit in the Age of AI by Pujaa Rajan, Abhishek Gupta, Vinay Kumar Jampani: Provides a modern methodology for rapidly testing and validating AI-driven ideas to discover true product-market fit. Link
AI First: The Playbook for a Future-Proof Business and Brand by Albert Meige: A strategic guide for business leaders on how to reposition their company and operations around artificial intelligence as a core capability. Link
AI Agents Explained for Business Leaders: Harness Agentic AI Systems and Intelligent Automation to Supercharge Workflows, Unleash AI-Powered Growth and Future-Proof Your Business by Shunyu Yao, Yecheng Jason Ma: Demystifies the concept of AI agents for a business audience, explaining their potential to automate complex workflows and drive growth. Link
AI-Driven Data Modelling: Transforming Insights and Decision-Making by Andy Kriebel, Eva Murray: Focuses on how AI can enhance and automate the process of data modelling to generate faster, more accurate insights for business intelligence. Link
Leaders Make the Future, Third Edition: Ten New Skills to Humanize Leadership with Generative AI by Bob Johansen: Identifies ten critical skills leaders need to develop to guide their organizations ethically and effectively through a future shaped by generative AI. Link
GenAI on AWS: A Practical Approach to Building Generative AI Applications on AWS by Chris Fregly, Antje Barth, Shelbee Eigenbrode: A hands-on technical guide for developers looking to build and deploy generative AI applications using Amazon Web Services tools and infrastructure. Link
Data Science & Engineering
Software Engineering for Data Scientists: From Notebooks to Scalable Systems by Catherine Nelson: Bridges the gap between data science experimentation and production software engineering, teaching best practices for building maintainable, scalable data products. Link
Machine Learning Pipelines: A Comprehensive Guide to Building and Deploying Intelligent Systems by Hannes Hapke, Catherine Nelson: A deep dive into creating automated, reproducible pipelines for machine learning projects, from data ingestion to model serving. Link
Machine Learning Operations for Beginners: A Practical Guide to Building, Deploying, and Managing Machine Learning Models by Sridhar Alla, Suman Kalyan Adari: An introductory guide to MLOps, covering the essential practices and tools needed to operationalize machine learning models effectively. Link
Effective Machine Learning Teams: Best Practices for ML Practitioners by David Tan, Ada Leung: Focuses on the human and process side of ML, offering best practices for collaboration, project management, and creating a culture that enables successful ML teams. Link
Analytics the Right Way: A Business Leader’s Guide to Putting Data to Productive Use by Tim Wilson, Dr. Joe Sutherland: A guide for non-technical leaders on how to ask the right questions, interpret data correctly, and foster a data-informed culture within their organization. Link
Leadership & Management
Strategy That Works: How Winning Companies Close the Strategy-To-Execution Gap by Paul Leinwand, Cesare Mainardi: Examines how successful companies develop a distinctive, ownable strategy and build the internal capabilities to execute it consistently. Link
HBR Guide to AI Basics for Managers by Harvard Business Review: A curated collection of articles from Harvard Business Review that provides managers with a foundational understanding of AI, its business applications, and managerial implications. Link
The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues • A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni: A leadership fable that identifies humility, hunger, and people smarts as the three indispensable virtues of an ideal team player. Link
Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change by William Bridges, Susan Bridges: The classic guide to managing the human side of organizational change, distinguishing between change (the event) and transition (the psychological process). Link
Business & Strategy
Full Steam Ahead: Unleash the Power of Vision in Your Company and Your Life by Ken Blanchard, Jesse Stoner: A short, powerful book on the importance of creating a clear, compelling vision to align and energize an organization or individual journey. Link
Beyond the Startup: Sparking Operational Innovations for Global Growth by Sean Chou, Ben Einstein: Focuses on the operational challenges and innovations required to scale a startup into a sustainable, global company. Link
Choose Your Customer: How to Compete Against the Digital Giants and Thrive by Jonathan L.S. Byrnes, John S. Wass: Advocates for a strategic approach of deeply serving a chosen customer segment rather than trying to compete broadly, especially against large digital platforms. Link
The Power to Predict: How Real Time Businesses Anticipate Customer Needs, Create Opportunities, and Beat the Competition by Vivek Ranadivé: Discusses the strategic advantage of building businesses that can sense and respond to market changes in real-time through data and analytics. Link
Personal Development & Productivity
Critical Thinking: Filter Out Misinformation, Elevate Your Judgment, and Thrive in Business and Life by Tom Chatfield: A guide to developing sharper critical thinking skills to better analyze information, make sound decisions, and avoid cognitive biases. Link
Focus on What Matters: Stoicism, Grit, indistractable by Darius Foroux: Blends Stoic philosophy with modern productivity techniques to provide a mindset and toolkit for achieving focus and resilience in work and life. Link
Technology & Engineering
Platform Engineering: A Guide for Technical, Product, and People Leaders by Viktor Farcic: Explores the emerging discipline of platform engineering, which focuses on building internal developer platforms to accelerate and standardize software delivery. Link
The FinOps Playbook: Strategies for Managing Cloud Costs for Startups and SMBs within AWS by J.R. Storment, Mike Fuller: A practical guide to implementing FinOps (Financial Operations) practices specifically for startups and small-to-medium businesses using AWS to control and optimize cloud spending. Link
The Elements of Voice First Style: A Practical Guide to Voice User Interface Design by William R. Sherman: A handbook for designing intuitive and effective voice user interfaces (VUIs) for applications like Alexa Skills and Google Assistant actions. Link
Product Roadmaps Relaunched: How to Set Direction while Embracing Uncertainty by C. Todd Lombardo, Bruce McCarthy, Evan Ryan, Michael Connors: A modern take on product road mapping that advocates for outcome-oriented, flexible roadmaps that communicate strategy while adapting to change. Link
Specialized Topics
Rewire Your Anxious Brain: How to Use the Neuroscience of Fear to End Anxiety, Panic, and Worry by Catherine M. Pittman, Elizabeth M. Karle: A book that explains anxiety from a neuroscientific perspective, focusing on the amygdala and cortex, and provides CBT-based techniques to manage it. Link
Atomic Scaling: How Small Teams Create Huge Growth by Justin Welsh: Provides strategies for solopreneurs and small teams to achieve significant business growth by focusing on leverage, systems, and niche dominance. Link
Random Acts of Automation: How to Fight Back When Automation Threatens Your Work, Your Life, and Everything You Do by Christopher Null: Examines the societal and personal impacts of automation, offering perspectives on how individuals can adapt and retain agency in an increasingly automated world. Link
Beyond the Goal: Eliyahu Goldratt Speaks on the Theory of Constraints by Eliyahu M. Goldratt: A compilation of lectures and discussions by the creator of the Theory of Constraints (TOC), providing deeper insights into this management philosophy for continuous improvement. Link
Isn’t it Obvious: Retailing and the Theory of Constraints by Eliyahu M. Goldratt: A business novel that applies the principles of the Theory of Constraints to the challenges of the retail industry, illustrating how to identify and manage bottlenecks. Link
So, what did I actually learn? A ton about the realities of running LLMs in production, the non-glamorous work of scaling product, Importance of aligning teams in an organization whenever you build a product and the new rules for building products with AI at their core.
It's been a powerful reminder that this is a journey without a finish line. I know I still have a long way to go.
I'm excited and looking forward to even more intense learnings in 2026.
Happy Learning!