--- title: What I learned from Software Engineering at Google description: The difference between Software Engineering and Programming is at the core of this book. Software Engineering is programming over time and programming is about... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/what-i-learned-from-software-engineering-at-google-n0u0kn3qd twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: What I learned from Software Engineering at Google | daily.dev og:description: The difference between Software Engineering and Programming is at the core of this book. Software Engineering is programming over time and programming is about... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/what-i-learned-from-software-engineering-at-google-n0u0kn3qd og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/n0u0kn3QD.png og:image:alt: What I learned from Software Engineering at Google og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # What I learned from Software Engineering at Google **[Community Picks](https://daily.dev/sources/community)** · 5 min read · 260 upvotes · 14 comments ## Summary The difference between Software Engineering and Programming is at the core of this book. Software Engineering is programming over time and programming is about writing code. When you're big, anyone might touch your code. The whole thing fits in your head. The earlier you find a mistake, the easier it is to fix. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@sentenz** · 9 upvotes > Abseil is providing a digital version of this book in HTML free of charge. > > https://abseil.io/resources/swe-book **@armandebussy** · 5 upvotes > Concise, yet insightful exploration of the enduring lessons in software engineering. I love that it emphasizes the importance of long-term thinking. **@kyoukhana** · 3 upvotes > Simply Amazing I might pick up the book as well. Project managers should read this book as well as Managers. They need to understand if you want to scale your business you need to learn how to write code that scales. Don't just complete the code to satisfy the Project Manager for that sprint. Most sprints the code is written so fast without thinking about long term scaling. **@kkurko** · 3 upvotes > This is one of the best books about software engineering I have ever read. There is a lot of information and food for thought here, so it will probably take a while to complete it (just be aware), but I highly recommend reading this book **@ghost** · 3 upvotes > The best phrase that really resonates with me was this: "As engineers join your project, they will find a way to make it work. That's a threat 😉" I couldn't have said it better! ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Don’t just attend KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon, Merge Forward your experience\!](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-just-attend-kubecon-cloudnativecon-merge-forward-your-experience--l0rpp73x8) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Announcing H2 2026 KCDs](https://daily.dev/posts/announcing-h2-2026-kcds-m96goajm1) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two months of Open Community Groups](https://daily.dev/posts/two-months-of-open-community-groups-asf52zhbs) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Unveils Schedule for KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Europe 2026](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-unveils-schedule-for-kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe-2026-ikhcoa5cb) · CNCF · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Debuts KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Japan 2026 Schedule](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-debuts-kubecon-cloudnativecon-japan-2026-schedule-xp5pyudub) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#google](https://daily.dev/tags/google), [#serverless](https://daily.dev/tags/serverless) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/what-i-learned-from-software-engineering-at-google-n0u0kn3qd) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"What I learned from Software Engineering at Google","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/what-i-learned-from-software-engineering-at-google-n0u0kn3qd","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/what-i-learned-from-software-engineering-at-google-n0u0kn3qd"},"datePublished":"2023-09-02T17:13:03.831Z","dateModified":"2023-12-07T12:02:45.284Z","description":"The difference between Software Engineering and Programming is at the core of this book. Software Engineering is programming over time and programming is about...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/e8cec414ac83401e13463112c2e5317e?_a=AQAEufR","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/e8cec414ac83401e13463112c2e5317e?_a=AQAEufR","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Community Picks","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Community Picks","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1655817725/logos/community","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/community"},"commentCount":14,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/what-i-learned-from-software-engineering-at-google-n0u0kn3qd","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":260},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":14}],"keywords":"google,serverless","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Community Picks","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/community"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"What I learned from Software Engineering at Google"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/what-i-learned-from-software-engineering-at-google-n0u0kn3qd","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Abseil is providing a digital version of this book in HTML free of charge.\nhttps://abseil.io/resources/swe-book","datePublished":"2023-09-05T07:07:16.872Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/n0u0kn3QD#c-zzvjkKfLf","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Sentenz","url":"https://daily.dev/sentenz","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/AItbvmm5NMOvEMO2icYyfQfphMADjqzUu-_nFwXoihB1=s100"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":9}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Concise, yet insightful exploration of the enduring lessons in software engineering. I love that it emphasizes the importance of long-term thinking.","datePublished":"2023-09-05T17:04:50.483Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/n0u0kn3QD#c-VVvep8seN","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Arman Debussy","url":"https://daily.dev/armandebussy","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--O0TOmw4y--/f_auto/v1715772965/public/noProfile"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":5}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Simply Amazing I might pick up the book as well. Project managers should read this book as well as Managers. They need to understand if you want to scale your business you need to learn how to write code that scales. Don’t just complete the code to satisfy the Project Manager for that sprint. Most sprints the code is written so fast without thinking about long term scaling.","datePublished":"2023-09-03T01:23:03.891Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/n0u0kn3QD#c-4DNnR6OUN","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Kevin","url":"https://daily.dev/kyoukhana","image":"https://avatars2.githubusercontent.com/u/756849?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"This is one of the best books about software engineering I have ever read. There is a lot of information and food for thought here, so it will probably take a while to complete it (just be aware), but I highly recommend reading this book","datePublished":"2023-09-03T05:51:51.461Z","dateModified":"2023-09-03T05:52:56.208Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/n0u0kn3QD#c-iDwvv2fJK","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Kirill Kurko","url":"https://daily.dev/kkurko","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/58859242?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"The best phrase that really resonates with me was this: “As engineers join your project, they will find a way to make it work. That’s a threat 😉” I couldn’t have said it better!","datePublished":"2023-09-07T04:44:44.057Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/n0u0kn3QD#c-BVYkHoTN3","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Deleted user","url":"https://daily.dev/ghost","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--hNIUzLiO--/f_auto/v1705327420/public/ghost_vlftth"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}}]} ```