In this episode of the podcast, we sync up with chapter two of Software Architecture Fundamentals 2nd Edition, Architectural Thinking, including topics like architecture versus design, the distinction and importance of technical depth versus breadth, the primacy of analyzing trade-offs, understanding business drivers, and balancing role expectations like coding versus non-coding activities.

In this episode, we start our chapter-by-chapter exploration of Software Architecture Fundamentals 2nd Edition. We discuss our (updated) definition of software architecture. While we were writing the first edition, we kept our eyes open for things that seems universally true; we hoped to find about 10, but we ended up with two in the first edition. For the second edition, we added a third law after some insights in the intervening years. In this episode of the podcast, we cover all three laws and how they apply to the remainder of the book.

What's it like to author a technical book? Especially one as stylized at Head First Software Architecture? We take a brief departure from our normal pattern of covering one book chapter per episode as we're between books and thought this might be a good time to go meta. We provide some insight in writing "regular" technical books, along with the special constraints and challenges inherent in writing for a series like Head First.