Summary:
The book delves into the principles and best practices for creating clean, maintainable, and efficient software systems, emphasizing the importance of deep design and the avoidance of complexity. It provides insights into the thought processes that underlie effective software architecture, including techniques for managing system dependencies and interfaces.
Key points:
1. Strategic vs Tactical Programming: Ousterhout stresses the need for strategic programming, which focuses on future code modification and maintenance, over tactical programming, which only considers immediate functionality.
Books similar to "A Philosophy of Software Design":

Clean Coder, The
Robert C. Martin

Code Complete
McConnell Steve

The Self-Taught Programmer
Cory Althoff

Computer Programming for Beginners
Nathan Clark

Pragmatic Programmer, The
Hunt Andrew|Thomas David

Pragmatic Programmer, The
David Thomas|Andrew Hunt

Software Engineering at Google
Titus Winters|Tom Manshreck|Hyrum Wright

Mythical Man-Month, The
Frederick P. Brooks Jr.

Extreme Programming Explained
Kent Beck|Cynthia Andres

Working Effectively with Legacy Code
Michael Feathers