At some point, reading about algorithms, communication, and leadership stopped being just personal development and became a habit I wanted other people to have too. So I started gifting books for birthdays instead of the usual things.
Where the Habit Came From
Books had genuinely changed how I approached projects and teams — not in a vague, inspirational way, but in specific, applicable ways: how to structure a hard conversation, how to reason about a system's limits, how to lead without being the loudest person in the room. When something changes how you operate that concretely, giving it away feels more meaningful than giving something that gets used once and forgotten.
Choosing the Right Book for the Right Person
The habit forced me to pay closer attention to people — what they were struggling with, what they were curious about, what kind of book would actually get read instead of shelved. That's its own small skill: matching a person to the right idea, not just the right object.
What It Says About How I Work
I think this habit is a pretty accurate reflection of how I approach teams generally: I'd rather hand someone something that changes how they think than something that just solves today's problem. It's the same instinct behind teaching a teammate to debug instead of debugging for them. Give people tools, not just outcomes.