The chapters — one page each
- 01From source code to a running processBefore pricing anything, know what actually happens between hitting run and code executing.
- 02Bits, numbers and textEvery mysterious bug involving 0.1 + 0.2, mojibake or overflow is this stage, unlearned.
- 03The machine underneathYou write code that works, but you cannot yet say what it costs.
- 04The operating system’s three liesYou know memory is slow and caches are fast; now meet the software that hides the machine from you.
- 05Concurrency: sharing memory without lyingThe scheduler interleaves your threads wherever it pleases; correctness under that is a discipline.
- 06The network is a machine tooEverything so far happened inside one box. Almost nothing you will build stays there.
- 07Reasoning about costYou know what the machine and the network charge; algorithms are how you decide what to buy.
- 08Measuring before believingEstimates start the argument; profilers end it.
- 09Languages and runtimesYour language is a machine too — garbage collector, JIT and all — and it has a cost model of its own.
- 10The mathematics you will actually useOne stage of maths, scoped to what the AI pathway quietly assumes.