**For:** Anjan — 9+ year Rails engineer, no formal CS degree. You build production web applications. This curriculum teaches you what happens beneath the frameworks, libraries, and abstractions you use every day.

Computer Systems Media Track #

Companion to: COMPUTER_SYSTEMS_MASTERY_CURRICULUM.md Purpose: Video lectures, YouTube channels, documentaries, and podcasts paired to each module. Systems concepts often click better visually — watching a CPU execute instructions or packets traverse a network makes the abstract concrete.

Last updated: April 30, 2026

How to Use This File #

Watch alongside reading. Ben Eater's breadboard videos while doing Nand2Tetris. CSAPP lectures while reading CSAPP chapters. Kleppmann's lectures while reading DDIA in your other curricula.
Break weeks. Between major modules, watch a documentary or fun talk to let ideas settle.
Mood tags: (Technical), (Inspiring), (Historical), (Fun), (Deep Dive)

Module 0: How Computers Work — The Big Picture #

Resource	Type	Duration	Mood	Why
Crash Course Computer Science (41 videos)	YouTube Series	10 min each	Fun	Animated overview of the entire CS stack. Perfect companion to Code: The Hidden Language.
Ben Eater: How Do Computers Calculate?	Video	15 min	Technical	Binary addition with logic gates on a breadboard. Makes Code Ch 8-13 visual.
The Machine That Changed the World (1992 documentary)	Documentary	5 episodes	Historical	The history of computing from Babbage to the internet. Dated but foundational.

Module 1: The C Programming Language #

Resource	Type	Duration	Mood	Why
CS50 2024 — Lectures 1-5 (C)	YouTube	2 hrs each	Inspiring	David Malan teaches C to beginners with incredible energy. The memory, pointers, and data structures lectures are particularly good.
Jacob Sorber: C Programming playlist	YouTube Channel	10-20 min each	Technical	Practical C programming: pointers, memory, file I/O, systems calls. A working professor who explains clearly.
Brian Kernighan on C (Computerphile)	Interview	10 min	Historical	The co-author of K&R reflects on C's design. Watch before reading the book.
Linus Torvalds on C vs C++ (various interviews)	Interviews	varies	Fun	Linus's opinions on C are entertaining and informative.

Module 2: Computer Architecture — From Gates to CPU #

Resource	Type	Duration	Mood	Why
Ben Eater: Building an 8-bit Breadboard Computer	YouTube Series	10-20 min each	Technical	THE visual companion to Nand2Tetris. Build a real CPU with breadboards, wires, and LEDs. See logic gates, ALU, clock, RAM, and control logic working physically. 40+ videos. Essential.
Nand2Tetris lecture videos (Coursera)	Course	2-3 hrs/week	Technical	The authors walk through each project. Watch alongside the book.
MIT 6.004 Computation Structures (OCW)	Course	varies	Deep Dive	More rigorous treatment of pipelining, caching, virtual memory. Use selectively.
Computerphile: How Computers Add (series)	YouTube	10 min each	Technical	Animated explanations of binary addition, ALU design, and CPU operation.
Sebastian Lague: How Computers Work (2024)	Video	1 hr	Inspiring	Beautiful visual explanation of computing from gates to programs. Modern production quality.

Module 3: Operating Systems #

Resource	Type	Duration	Mood	Why
OSTEP Authors' Lecture Videos (if available)	Course	varies	Technical	Check the OSTEP website for companion lectures by Arpaci-Dusseau.
CMU 15-213 CSAPP Lectures (YouTube)	YouTube	1.5 hrs each	Deep Dive	Processes, virtual memory, concurrency from the CSAPP perspective. Watch the processes and virtual memory lectures.
MIT 6.828 xv6 lectures (YouTube)	YouTube	varies	Deep Dive	MIT's OS engineering course. Build an operating system. Watch if you want to go deeper than OSTEP.
Computerphile: What is an Operating System?	Video	10 min	Technical	Quick overview before diving into OSTEP.
Brian Will: Unix System Calls playlist	YouTube	10-15 min each	Technical	Practical system call demonstrations: fork, exec, wait, pipe, dup2. Watch alongside OSTEP.

Module 4: Computer Networks #

Resource	Type	Duration	Mood	Why
Kurose & Ross lecture videos (YouTube)	YouTube	1.5 hrs each	Technical	The authors of the standard networking textbook. Application layer, transport layer, network layer, link layer. The best free networking course.
Computerphile: Networking playlist	YouTube	10-15 min each	Technical	DNS, TCP, UDP, routing, HTTP explained clearly. Watch alongside Head First Networking.
Ben Eater: Networking tutorial	YouTube Series	10-15 min each	Technical	Low-level networking with real hardware. ARP, IP, TCP packet analysis.
Julia Evans: Networking! (talk)	Talk	30 min	Fun	Julia Evans makes networking fun and accessible. Packet captures, DNS debugging, socket programming.
Warriors of the Net (1999 animated film)	Animation	13 min	Fun	Animated journey of a packet across the internet. Old but charming and accurate. Watch for fun.

Module 5: Systems Programming — UNIX #

Resource	Type	Duration	Mood	Why
Brian Kernighan: UNIX — A History and a Memoir (talks)	Talk	60 min	Historical	Kernighan tells the story of UNIX at Bell Labs. Fascinating history from someone who was there.
AT&T Archives: The UNIX Operating System (1982)	Documentary	27 min	Historical	Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson demonstrate UNIX. Historic footage.
Computerphile: UNIX and Linux playlist	YouTube	10 min each	Technical	Pipes, file descriptors, processes, permissions explained.
Gary Bernhardt: A Whole New World (PyCon 2012)	Talk	30 min	Inspiring	The gap between high-level languages and the system beneath. Eye-opening.
Bryan Cantrill: The Summer of Rust (talks)	Talk	60 min	Inspiring	Systems programming culture, debugging production systems, the joy of understanding the machine.

Module 6: Theory of Computation #

Resource	Type	Duration	Mood	Why
MIT 18.404J Theory of Computation (OCW)	Course	varies	Deep Dive	Michael Sipser's course. DFA, NFA, CFG, Turing machines, decidability, complexity. The best free theory course.
Computerphile: Halting Problem	Video	8 min	Technical	Clear explanation of the Halting Problem. Watch before the formal proof.
Computerphile: P vs NP	Video	12 min	Technical	Why P vs NP is the biggest open problem in CS.
Brian Kernighan: SICP and Beyond (talk)	Talk	60 min	Historical	On SICP's legacy and programming language design.
GEB audiobook or lecture (if available)	Various	varies	Philosophical	Hofstadter's ideas explained visually. Search for GEB lectures or animations.
Coursera: Automata Theory (Ullman, Stanford)	Course	8-10 hrs	Technical	Jeff Ullman teaches automata. Your Coursera subscription covers this.

Module 7: Compilers & Interpreters #

Resource	Type	Duration	Mood	Why
Bob Nystrom: Crafting Interpreters (conference talk)	Talk	45 min	Inspiring	The author explains why he wrote the book and what you learn by building interpreters.
Stanford Compilers (Alex Aiken) on Coursera	Course	10-12 weeks	Technical	Academic compiler course. Lexing, parsing, type checking, code generation.
Nand2Tetris Part 2 (Coursera)	Course	6 weeks	Technical	Build the compiler and OS for your Nand2Tetris computer.
Destroy All Software: A Compiler From Scratch	Screencast	30 min	Technical	Build a complete compiler in 30 minutes. Dense but brilliant.
Thorsten Ball: Writing An Interpreter In Go (talk)	Talk	40 min	Practical	The author explains Pratt parsing and interpreter design.
Terence Parr: ANTLR and parsing (talks)	Talk	60 min	Technical	Parser generator theory and practice.

Module 8: CSAPP Integration #

Resource	Type	Duration	Mood	Why
CMU 15-213 Full Course (YouTube)	YouTube	1.5 hrs each	Deep Dive	The full CSAPP course from CMU. 27 lectures covering every chapter. Watch the data representation, assembly, and virtual memory lectures at minimum.
Matt Godbolt: What Has My Compiler Done for Me Lately? (CppCon)	Talk	50 min	Technical	The creator of Compiler Explorer shows how compilers optimize code. Directly relevant to CSAPP Ch 3 and Ch 5.
Compiler Explorer (godbolt.org)	Tool	ongoing	Technical	Paste C code, see assembly output. THE tool for CSAPP Ch 3 exercises.

Podcasts #

Podcast	Focus	Why
Oxide and Friends	Systems programming, hardware, OS	Bryan Cantrill and friends discuss systems topics. Deep, opinionated, fun.
Systems with JT	Systems programming, Nushell, Rust	Practical systems discussions.
CoRecursive	Deep engineering stories	Long-form stories about systems decisions and their consequences.
Computer Science Podcast (Lex Fridman)	CS interviews	Interviews with Kernighan, Knuth, Torvalds, and other systems legends.
Signals and Threads (Jane Street)	Systems, FP, engineering	Deep technical discussions about systems at Jane Street.

Channel	Focus	Why
Ben Eater	Computer architecture, networking	THE hardware channel. Breadboard computers, networking, GPU from scratch.
Computerphile	CS concepts	Accessible explanations of CS topics by academics.
Sebastian Lague	Visual computing	Beautiful visualizations of computing concepts.
Low Level Learning	C, assembly, systems	Short, clear videos on low-level topics.
Jacob Sorber	C programming, systems	A professor teaching C and systems programming on YouTube.
3Blue1Brown	Math and CS visualization	When you need a visual explanation of math concepts in theory of computation.

Documentaries & Films #

Title	Duration	Mood	Why
Revolution OS (2001)	85 min	Historical	The story of Linux, GNU, and open source. Features Torvalds, Stallman, Raymond.
The Code: Story of Linux (2001)	60 min	Historical	Finnish documentary about Linux's creation.
BBS: The Documentary (2005)	8 episodes	Historical	The history of bulletin board systems. Early networking culture.
Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (2016)	98 min	Philosophical	Werner Herzog explores the internet. Beautiful, strange, thought-provoking.
The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (2014)	105 min	Inspiring	The story of Aaron Swartz — RSS, Reddit, Creative Commons, and the fight for open access.

Watch one video per day during modules. Subscribe to 3-4 channels. Systems knowledge compounds when you see it from multiple angles.

Computer Systems Community Guide #

Companion to: COMPUTER_SYSTEMS_MASTERY_CURRICULUM.md Purpose: Forums, newsletters, blogs, conferences, and projects for systems topics. Systems knowledge grows through community — reading kernel mailing lists, following OS researchers, and studying real system internals.

Last updated: April 30, 2026

Newsletters & Blogs #

Must-Follow (Systems-Focused) #

Blog/Newsletter	Author/Source	Focus	Why
Julia Evans	Julia Evans	Networking, Linux, debugging	Makes complex systems concepts accessible. Zines, comics, and clear blog posts. Packet captures, system calls, DNS debugging. The best systems blog for working programmers.
Dan Luu	Dan Luu	Systems performance, engineering culture	Data-driven posts on how hardware and software actually behave. Cache performance, memory latency, the gap between theory and practice.
Eli Bendersky	Eli Bendersky	Compilers, C, Go, systems	Deep technical posts on parsing, compiler construction, and low-level programming. Excellent companion to Modules 6-7.
Brendan Gregg	Brendan Gregg	Performance, Linux, tracing	THE performance analysis expert. Flame graphs, perf, BPF, DTrace. Systems Performance book author.
Mara Bos	Mara Bos	Concurrency, atomics, systems	Rust Atomics and Locks author. Clear posts on concurrency primitives and OS internals.
Fabien Sanglard	Fabien Sanglard	Architecture, game engines, systems	Deep dives into real system architectures (Doom, Quake, iOS, etc.). Beautifully illustrated.
Cloudflare Blog	Cloudflare Engineering	Networking, security, performance	Production networking at massive scale. TCP optimization, DNS, TLS, DDoS. Directly relevant to Module 4.
Fly.io Blog	Fly.io Engineering	Systems, networking, Elixir	Deep systems posts about running infrastructure. Cross-references with your Elixir curriculum.

Worth Following #

Blog/Newsletter	Focus	Why
LWN.net	Linux kernel, systems	The authoritative Linux kernel news source. Kernel development, system calls, new features.
Beej's Guides	C, networking, IPC	Free, excellent guides for C programming, sockets, and IPC. Reference throughout curriculum.
OSDev Wiki	OS development	Community wiki for operating system development. Reference for Module 3 deep dives.
Papers We Love	CS papers	Reading groups for influential CS papers. Systems papers are well-represented.
The Morning Paper (archive)	CS paper summaries	Adrian Colyer's daily CS paper summaries. The archive is gold for systems papers.
Hacker News	General tech	Systems posts regularly hit the front page. Comments from kernel developers, compiler engineers, and networking experts.

Forums & Communities #

Community	Platform	Focus	Why Join
r/osdev	Reddit	OS development	Active community building operating systems. Projects, questions, tutorials.
r/systems	Reddit	Systems engineering	Discussions about OS, networking, and distributed systems.
r/compsci	Reddit	CS theory	Theory of computation, algorithms, complexity discussions.
r/compilers	Reddit	Compilers	Compiler construction discussions. Helpful for Module 7.
r/netsec	Reddit	Network security	Security-focused networking discussions.
OSDev Forums	Forum	OS development	Dedicated community for building operating systems.
Nand2Tetris Community	Website	Computer architecture	The Nand2Tetris project community. Forums, Q&A, project help.
Lobsters	Link aggregator	Systems, PL theory	Higher signal-to-noise ratio than HN for systems and PL topics.

Conferences (Recordings Available Free) #

Conference	Focus	How to Access	Why
USENIX OSDI	Operating systems	YouTube (free)	Top OS research conference. Papers on file systems, kernels, scheduling.
USENIX NSDI	Networked systems	YouTube (free)	Networking research in practice. CDNs, DNS, load balancing papers.
SIGCOMM	Computer networks	ACM DL (some free)	THE networking research conference. Protocol design, routing, congestion control.
SOSP / OSDI	OS and systems	YouTube (free)	Alternating top OS conferences. Landmark systems papers are presented here.
Strange Loop	Systems, languages	YouTube archive (free)	Systems talks by Hickey, Kleppmann, Cantrill. Ended 2023 but archive is gold.
CppCon	C++, systems, performance	YouTube (free)	Systems performance talks. Matt Godbolt's compiler talks live here.
FOSDEM	Open source systems	YouTube (free)	Free European open source conference. Kernel, networking, compiler tracks.
linux.conf.au	Linux, systems	YouTube (free)	Linux kernel and systems conference.

Open-Source Projects to Study #

Study these for their architecture and implementation, not just their code.

Operating Systems & Kernels #

Project	Language	Why Study
xv6	C	MIT's teaching OS. Simple, readable, well-documented. THE reference for Module 3 deep dives.
Linux kernel	C	The world's most important software project. Read specific subsystems (scheduler, VFS, networking) after OSTEP.
SerenityOS	C++	A complete OS built from scratch by one person (initially). Browser, GUI, kernel. Inspiring.

Compilers & Interpreters #

Project	Language	Why Study
CRuby	C	Ruby's own interpreter. Read parse.y (parser), compile.c (compiler), vm.c (YARV VM). Directly relevant to Module 7.
Lua	C	Tiny, elegant, embeddable interpreter. ~20K lines of C. Study its VM design after Crafting Interpreters.
TinyCC	C	A tiny C compiler by Fabrice Bellard. Compiles C to x86 in one pass. Study for compiler simplicity.
LLVM	C++	The compiler infrastructure behind Clang, Rust, Swift. Study the IR and optimization passes.

Networking #

Project	Language	Why Study
mTCP	C	Userspace TCP stack. See TCP implementation in ~20K lines.
curl	C	The most popular HTTP client. Study its connection handling, TLS negotiation, and protocol support.

Essential Readings (Papers & Articles) #

Paper/Article	Author	Year	Module	Why
Reflections on Trusting Trust	Ken Thompson	1984	7	Can you trust your compiler? The most famous short CS paper. 3 pages.
The UNIX Time-Sharing System	Ritchie & Thompson	1974	5	The original UNIX paper. See the design philosophy from the source.
An Experimental Time-Sharing System	Corbato et al.	1962	3	Where time-sharing began.
End-to-End Arguments in System Design	Saltzer, Reed, Clark	1984	4	THE networking design principle. Why put functionality at the endpoints, not in the network.
A Note on the Confinement Problem	Lampson	1973	3	Information flow control in OS. Short and influential.

Tools to Learn and Use #

Tool	Category	Why
GDB/LLDB	Debugging	Debug C programs. Essential for Modules 1, 3, 5.
Valgrind	Memory checking	Detect memory leaks, use-after-free, buffer overflows. Essential for Module 1.
strace/dtrace	System call tracing	See every system call a program makes. Essential for Modules 3, 5.
tcpdump/Wireshark	Packet capture	Capture and analyze network traffic. Essential for Module 4.
Compiler Explorer (godbolt.org)	Compiler output	See assembly output of C code. Essential for Module 8.
perf	Performance analysis	Linux performance counters, flame graphs. Module 8.

Books to Read for Fun (Not in the Curriculum) #

Book	Author	Why
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution	Steven Levy	The culture of early computing. Fun, inspiring.
The Soul of a New Machine	Tracy Kidder	Pulitzer Prize winner. Building a minicomputer at Data General.
In the Beginning Was the Command Line	Neal Stephenson	The philosophy of operating systems. Short, witty.
Just for Fun	Linus Torvalds	Linus's autobiography. Light and fun.
Where Wizards Stay Up Late	Hafner & Lyon	The origin story of the internet.
Coders at Work	Peter Seibel	Interviews with legendary programmers (Knuth, Norvig, Zawinski, etc.).
UNIX: A History and a Memoir	Brian Kernighan	Kernighan's account of UNIX at Bell Labs. Essential history.

Systems knowledge lives in communities. Follow 3 blogs. Read 1 paper per month. Subscribe to 2 channels. The mental models compound over years.