Perhaps you are taking the headline a little to seriously, literally. How about.
"Design Books Every Hacker Who Would Like to Read About Design Should Consider Reading Unless They are Designing an API"
"Design Books Every Hacker Who Would Like to Read About Design Should Consider Reading Unless They are Designing an API"
Something as general as "don't make me think" may make sense for API design, but honestly I doubt the applicability of "The Elements of Typographic Style" or "Grid Systems" to library documentation and API discoverability.