Start Small, Stay Small

This was a good book! I wasn't quite the target audience for it, but that's on me: I'm further along in my software journey (post-launch, post-traction) than what this book targets (pre-launch, ideation and iteration). Even then, there was a lot of useful and reasonable wisdom — particularly around thinking about time & money, identifying niches, and so on. It's entertaining as a cultural artifact: there is a lot of talk about licensed software (that of course has largely gone the way of the dodo, thanks to SaaS becoming so prevalent) and "risky ventures" like app stores (still true!).

I'd recommend reading it if you're looking to start off with a quick side project. It is mercifully fluff-free; there are no hackneyed anecdotes, and it is not exactly dense but it is