09_resources — The Ammunition Rack

Principle: Resources are ammunition, not itinerary. You are not going to read this directory cover-to-cover. You are going to reach for one file, take what you need, and put it back. The 13-month roadmap in phases 0–7 is the itinerary; this directory is the armory.

What lives here

Eight files. Each is a curated, verified, opinionated shortlist. No “50 books to read before you die” bloat. Every entry is here because it is either (a) the canonical reference for a topic, or (b) the shortest path to competence on that topic for someone with your profile — applied ML engineer, India, returning to C++ after a two-year Python detour.

File

Purpose

When to open

01_books_canon.md

Physical & ebook books — the durable stack

Start of every phase; buy the phase-relevant book in month 1

02_online_courses.md

Free & paid courses/tutorials

Phase 0–1 for learncpp.com; Phase 3+ for specialized courses

03_papers_and_deep_reads.md

Papers, long-form blog series, keynote talks

Weekend deep-dives; when a phase notion feels shaky

04_reference_sites.md

The daily-lookup web layer

Bookmark all on Day 1

05_paid_platforms.md

Pluralsight, Educative, LeetCode Premium, O’Reilly

Only when free path is exhausted for a topic

06_2026_flag_and_kill_list.md

Books/resources to actively skip

Read once, save yourself weeks

07_zoho_alignment_reads.md

India + Zoho + applied-ML career context

Every 2 months during career-reflection reviews

How to use this directory

  1. Do not read linearly. Open the phase you are in (see ../01_phase_0… through ../08_phase_7…). Each phase has a “Required reading” section that names 1–3 specific chapters of specific books from 01_books_canon.md. Read those, not the whole book.

  2. Buy one book at a time. Books shipped to India take 5–10 days via Amazon.in. Order the next phase’s book while working the current one.

  3. Prefer ebooks for tooling books (Professional CMake, C++20 Complete Guide) — they get updated. Prefer physical for canon (Stroustrup, Meyers) — they age well and margin notes matter.

  4. The kill list (06_...md) is non-negotiable. If a well-meaning senior at Zoho hands you “Thinking in C++” or “C++ Primer 5e,” politely accept it and read the kill-list entry for that title. You will not learn C++20/23 from a 2011 book.

  5. URLs verified live in June–July 2026. If a link 404s, cross-reference the archive.org Wayback Machine before assuming the resource is dead.

Naming & pricing conventions used throughout

  • Difficulty: Beginner (B) / Intermediate (I) / Advanced (A) / Expert (E).

  • Phase mapping: P0–P7 refers to phase directories 01_phase_0… through 08_phase_7….

  • Prices: USD list price first, INR (₹) approximate second. Indian ebook prices are often 40–70% lower than paperback due to publisher regional pricing (Pearson, Addison-Wesley LPE — “Low-Price Edition”).

  • [LPE] tag = Low-Price Edition available in India, ~₹500–900 for a book that costs $50 in the US. Buy the LPE. It’s the same text, cheap paper.

  • [DEAD-2026] tag = URL confirmed non-functional as of July 2026. Not listed; noted here so you know it was checked.

The one-line philosophy

Skim widely. Read one canonical book deeply per phase. Ship code from day one. Talks and papers are dessert, not dinner.