I don't generally read nonfiction related to or targeted at start ups/tech/silicon valley/self help kinda stuff.
James Rhodes' (pianist) books 'Instrumental' and 'Fire on All Sides' (both memoirs) are, well, I hesitate to call them 'comfort reads' because they are harrowing. They're comforting in the sense that he brings to light some extremely confronting things (take the content warnings seriously!) and does it with earnestness, a deep desire to educate, a brilliant sense of humour, and despite never having gone through any of the things he has, the books are somehow extremely relatable. His passion for music is contagious as well.
As for general things I keep coming back to? Pretty much everything Bertrand Russell wrote. Mark Fisher, Judith Butler, too. Lots of Ancient Greek chaps, of course. Lots of philosophy.
I do sometimes read 'idiomatic <programming language>' type books for languages I'll probably never use. It's not all that impactful when not actually trying to program in the language but they're usually well written, interesting, and the ideas/philosophies/approaches to programming for the language can be valuable.
James Rhodes' (pianist) books 'Instrumental' and 'Fire on All Sides' (both memoirs) are, well, I hesitate to call them 'comfort reads' because they are harrowing. They're comforting in the sense that he brings to light some extremely confronting things (take the content warnings seriously!) and does it with earnestness, a deep desire to educate, a brilliant sense of humour, and despite never having gone through any of the things he has, the books are somehow extremely relatable. His passion for music is contagious as well.
As for general things I keep coming back to? Pretty much everything Bertrand Russell wrote. Mark Fisher, Judith Butler, too. Lots of Ancient Greek chaps, of course. Lots of philosophy.
I do sometimes read 'idiomatic <programming language>' type books for languages I'll probably never use. It's not all that impactful when not actually trying to program in the language but they're usually well written, interesting, and the ideas/philosophies/approaches to programming for the language can be valuable.