Carlos Gonzalez - Recommendations

The Mom Test

A practical guide to validating start up ideas.

Venture Deals

A thorough look at what you need to know as a start up founder that wants to raise VC money without getting screwed.

Startup Equity for employees

Useful if you're looking to join a start up as an employee but aren't familiar with options or how start ups tend to compensate employees.

B2B SaaS

A framework for selling B2B SaaS.

Pro Git

A short but sufficient intro to git. Chapters 2 and 3 are what you'll need 99% of the time..

Go Web Examples

Some examples of common web development related tasks in Go

Database Internals

If you want to dig into how databases work on the inside, look no further.

Raft

The best resource I've found for understanding Raft and consensus algorithms in general.

Writing an Interpreter in Go

Part 1 of the series I recommend to those who want to understand how a compiler works. I recommend everyone read both parts.

Learn C++

The resource I recommend to everyone looking to learn C++.

Effective C++

The second book everyone should read about C++. It does a good job of explaining the different parts of C++ and gives heuristics for when to avoid certain features.

Intro to embedded Linux

Short playlist of videos that give an overview of the process for getting linux into embedded applications.

Mastering Embedded Linux Programming

If you ever find yourself in the unfortunate situation where you have to package linux on an embedded system yourself, this is a good starting point.

Kalman Filter

A great resource if you just want to focus on Kalman Filters. I bought the book a long time ago and it is well worth the money.

Underactuated Robotics

The best resource for learning modern control theory. I hope to one day meet Prof. Tedrake and tell him thanks for this invaluable resource.

Full control of a quadrotor

A look at different techniques for modeling and controlling a quadcopter when compared to the previous item. Sometimes having different authors explain the same topic helps to understand it better.

A Differential Drive

A model for a differential drive vehicle. If you want start messing with a model to do path planning, estimation, controls, etc. this is the one to start with.

PID

Great series of videos covering PID control.

State Space

Great series of videos covering state space models and LQR.

LQR

In depth lecture on LQR.

Control Challenges

A playground with a set of control challenges to test out and learn various control methods.

Probabilistic Robotics

Often treated as the bible of SLAM, but I would complement it with resources about Computer Vision and State Estimation.

GTSAM

A library for building graph based SLAM systems. The intro tutorial is my favorite overview of SLAM since it's short and clear.

If you prefer to learn with videos instead of books, this is where you should start learning about modern ML.

This is one of those resources I can't believe is free. A true gift to humanity.

Ray Tracing in One Weekend Series

This is a series of 3 books that give a great overview of ray tracing. The first book, Ray Tracing in One Weekend, is the book I recommend to those who are first starting to get into computer graphics. The entire series is worth reading and is completely free online.

Scratch-a-Pixel

Perhaps the most thorough writing I have ever seen on a subject. A wonderful resource and my go-to for all things computer graphics.

Physically Based Rendering

Once you've used the previous resources for learning about computer graphics, this book will give you breakdown and explanation of a fully working modern ray tracer and the parts that go into it.

Essence of Linear Algebra

Introduction to applied Linear Algebra

The book that made linear algebra "click" for me and showed me why it's useful. Everything is well motivated and practical. Use this as a guide when learning about linear algebra or machine learning.

Numerical Algorithms

An introduction to all the numerical programming and math you'll ever need to know.

Convex Optimization

The bible of Convex Optimization. Useful for knowing which optimization problems can be solved "easily".

Designing Electronics that Work

This book is a phemonenal reference for PCB design so that you can skip all the common mistakes and iterate faster. I always have it on hand when doing PCB design.

Digital Computer Electronics

What do people mean when they say "Computers are just ones and zeroes"? This book will show you. You start with a transistor and build up to CPUs and memory. Reading this one then CSAPP will give you a phenomenal understanding of how computers work.

Art of Electronics

Useful as a desktop reference once you've already mastered the topic, not as a book to learn from.

PySDR

A phenomenal and practical intro to digital signal processing with applications to radio. This is geared towards applying DSP instead of getting caught up in the theory like so many other resources do.

Making USB Devices

A good intro to adding USB to a PCB design. Read this and its recommended resources before digging into the USB spec, etc.

USB In A Nutshell

If you want start digging into the USB spec, and Making USB Devices above was not enough, this is the resource I recommend. The USB 2.0 spec is 650 pages. This one is 30 pages. Read this one first.

Financial Statements

Another one that should be required reading in school. A practical guide to learning financial statements and basic accounting. This is the one you should read so that you can get basic accounting down and then move on with your life.

Pricing Money

A succint introduction to the world of making money with money.

Payment Systems in the U.S.

The book everyone recommends when looking at payments and FinTech in general. I recommend reading this one after The Anatomy of the Swipe so you can get a better feel for the concepts.

Bits About Money

Great newsletter with a deep archive for learning about the intersection of financial services and tech.

How ACH Works

Short series on how ACH works. A bit old, but still worth the read.

For Profit: A History of corporations

This is my favorite non-technical book. It traces the evolution of corporations starting with the Medici all the way to Facebook. I highly recommend it.

The Innovators

My favorite of Isaacson's books. It traces the path of computers from Lovelace to Netscape.

The Prize

The history of the last 150 years through the lens of oil. My second favorite non-technical book. I highly recommend it.

How they got rich

A succint overview of Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, JP Morgan, and the Gilded Age.

American Rascal

Jay Gould is the often forgotten figure of the Gilded age. If Gould was alive today he would be a private equity guy launching hostile takeovers.

Andrew Carnegie

A good look at Andrew Carnegie's life without the bias of an autobigraphy.

Poor Charlie's Almanack

"if you don't learn to constantly revise your earlier conclusions, and get better ones, ... you're like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest." - Charlie Munger

Build

Reflections and wisdom from the guy that led the iPod & iPhone projects then went on to found Nest. This is the first time I saw a leader own up to the fact that some decisions that are made during the product development stage are based on opinion.

Invested

A surprisingly honest account of Charles Schwab's founding of the Charles Schwab Corporation.

The Founders

A look at the early days of PayPal through the lens of the founders and employees.