Frame Perfect

"Frame Perfect" by tech journalist Daniel O'Malley explores the subculture of speedrunning—the art of completing video games as fast as humanly (and sometimes inhumanly) possible. O'Malley argues that speedrunning is not just a hobby, but a form of digital archaeology and extreme optimization that offers lessons applicable to software engineering and project management. The book dives into the technical side, explaining how runners dissect game code to find "sequence breaks," utilize memory corruption, and exploit physics engines. It profiles legendary runners and the collaborative effort required to shave milliseconds off a record. O'Malley also explores the psychology of the "reset," the ability to fail thousands of times and immediately start over with high focus—a trait he calls "micro-resilience." Beyond the screen, "Frame Perfect" looks at the community-driven charity events like GDQ (Games Done Quick) that raise millions, proving the social value of this niche. It honors the dedication required to master a system so thoroughly that you can break it to your will. This book is for gamers, coders, and anyone fascinated by the limits of human reaction time and the beauty of broken code.