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Why this book is useful
If you know me you know that I am a vivid reader, specially fantasy novels. But I also have a few technical books that I like to read from time to time. I think I have almost all the classic technical books: clean code, python manuals, framework documentation, and so on. But not everything has to be about the software. Sometimes, it is about the hardware.
Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software, by Charles Petzold, is one of those books. It starts with very simple ideas, like signals, switches, binary numbers, and relays. Then it goes step by step until we can understand how computers work.
For me, that is the best part. The book does not treat the computer like magic. It explains how small and simple pieces can become something useful when we put them together in the correct way.
In my case, this also connects with my background. I studied Industrial Engineering, and during that time I also studied a little bit of computer science and electronics. Not enough to say that I am very into hardware, but enough to make me curious about how all these parts work together.
The useful mental model
Most of the day I am working with Python, APIs, databases, containers, and infrastructure. That is fine and it is practical, but it also means that many layers are invisible for me.
And this book helps me to see some of those layers again.
It does not make me a hardware engineer, and that is not my objective. But it helps me connect ideas that we use many times without thinking too much: bits, bytes, memory, instructions, encodings, and protocols.
Even today, when I have doubts about hardware, I usually ask for help to a friend who is very into that world (Hello there, Alberto!).
As I am more into software, having that other point of view is useful for me. That is another reason why I like this book. It helps me understand better the hardware side and get more in touch with the lower layers of the computer.
Do I recommend this book?
Absolutely, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding how computers work at a fundamental level.
I would not read Code looking for direct advice to write better backend services tomorrow. It is not that kind of book.
But I think it is very useful if we want to understand the stack from a lower level. It also helps to remember that the abstractions we use every day are built on top of other smaller abstractions.
And sometimes that is enough. Not every book needs to change how we work immediately. Some books are useful because they make our mental model a little more clear.