BookCast

Books for people starting from nothing

Written by Kuzzat Altay, from twelve years of teaching career changers to test software. Read & listen, because most people would rather scroll than sit down with a book.

The Agent Factory

Old software automated the task. The new software automates the role. Nine chapters on who gets paid to own the quality of the agents that do it.

19 min  ·  9 chapters
The Wrong Half

Writing code got cheap and checking it did not. Seventeen chapters on why a prediction engine cannot tell you when it is wrong, and who pays.

49 min  ·  17 chapters
What Did You Pay for Your Heart?

You worked two hours to deserve a chocolate. What did you do to deserve your heart? Nine chapters on gratitude, money, and purpose with a direction.

16 min  ·  9 chapters
It Was Never the Code

Thirteen things about the six months in front of you that are not on the syllabus. From twelve years of teaching people who started with nothing.

41 min  ·  17 chapters
The Six-Month Tomato

A seed shows nothing at ten days and nothing at twenty. Nine chapters on why people leave a six-month change four months in, and what that costs.

17 min  ·  9 chapters
Motivation Is a Hormone

Twenty-two ideas about how behaviour actually changes, in the order your year will hand them to you. Dopamine is not a plan, and it never was.

1 h 30 min  ·  17 chapters
Failure Is A Skill

Twenty years of school taught you that failing is the thing to avoid. Nine chapters on why that leaves you hearing one rejection as a verdict.

17 min  ·  9 chapters
The Three Circles

You are the average of your five closest people. Nine chapters on the three times that number had to change, and what each change cost.

17 min  ·  9 chapters
Kuzzat Altay

Kuzzat Altay, Cydeo

Who wrote these

Twelve years in the room with people starting from nothing

I arrived in America with no connections, no engineering degree and no margin for error. Everything on this shelf started as something I said out loud to a room full of people in the same position.

None of it is lecture notes. It was worked out on whiteboards with warehouse workers, drivers and retail staff who had decided to change what they did for a living, and it is the same language I use when a cohort is stuck at eleven at night.

Every book here is free, and you can read it or listen to it. No account, nothing to buy.

14,000+
graduates
36
countries
12
years teaching
Every cohort
still taught by him
Next live class
Sunday, October 41:00 PM ET

How to Become an In-Demand Agentic QA Engineer in 2026

90 minuteswith Kuzzat AltayFreeLive, online

Taught by the person who wrote the books on this shelf. Bring a question. You can ask him anything.

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Free. We send the link and a reminder before it starts.

After the books

The program these books come from

CYDEO’s AI QA Automation program runs live, taught by the person who wrote these books. Six months, from no background at all to testing software for a living.