Sometimes I get asked questions that would be more fun to answer in public. All letters are treated as anonymous unless permission is otherwise granted.
Hey [Redacted]! It's great to hear from you. I'm very glad you joined the coffee club and met some good folks. :)
You asked how to learn about systems. A great question! I think I need to start first with what I mean when I say systems.
My definition of systems is all of the underlying software we developers use but are taught not to think about because they are so solid: our compilers and interpreters, our databases, our operating system, our browser, and so on. We think of them as basically not having bugs, we just count on them to be correct and fast enough so we can build the applications that really matter to users.
But 1) some developers do actually have to work on these fundamental blocks (compilers, databases, operating systems, browsers, etc.) and 2) it's not thaaaat hard to get into this development professionally and 3) even if you don't get into it professionally, having a better understanding of these fundamental blocks will make you a better application developer. At least I think so.
To get into systems I think it starts by you just questioning how each layer you build on works. Try building that layer yourself. For example you've probably used a web framework like Rails or Next.js. But you can just go and write that layer yourself too (for education).
And you've probably used Postgres or SQLite or DynamoDB. But you can also just go and write that layer yourself (for education). It's this habit of thinking and digging into the next lower layer that will get you into systems. Basically, not being satisfied with the black box.
I do not think there are many good books on programming in general, and very very few must-read ones, but one that I recommend to everybody is Designing Data Intensive Applications. I think it's best if you read it with a group of people. (My book club will read it in December when the 2nd edition comes out, you should join.) But this book is specific to data obviously and not interested in the fundamentals of other systems things like compilers or operating systems or browsers or so on.
Also, I see getting into this as a long-term thing. Throughout my whole career (almost 11 years now) I definitely always tried to dig into compilers and interpreters, I wrote and blogged about toy implementations a lot. And then 5 years ago I started digging into databases and saw that there was more career potential there. But it still took 4 years until I got my first job as a developer working on a database (the job I currently have).
Things take time to learn and that's ok! You have a long career to look forward to. And if you end up not wanting to dig into this stuff that's totally fine too. I think very few developers actually do. And they still have fine careers.
Anyway, I hope this is at least mildly useful. I hope you join nycsystems.xyz as well and look forward to seeing you at future coffee clubs!
Cheers,
Phil