Review: The Passionate Programmer
Although at this point in my life I’m not actively programming — last week I’ve bought myself a copy of The Passionate Programmer. Why? Because every single day I feel and believe I am a passionate programmer. And this book makes me desire to program even more. Below I’ve written a summary of what this book is about.
First of all this is not a technical book. It doesn’t tell you Git is better than Mercurial or Subversion. Nor if you should program in Haskell, Python or even Clojure. It does however tell you much more important stuff. Which hopefully will make you a better and happier programmer for the rest of your life. It stimulates you to: actively plan and steer your career software development.
The author of The Passionate Programmer goes by the name of Chad Fowler, who appears to be a active figure in the Ruby-scene. But more interestingly Mr. Fowler is a former professional saxophone player. Which perhaps has helped him in making such astute observations on how to make a career in software development. I most say who I am to judge — I can’t really say I have made that much of a career in software development just yet. But this book will surely increase my chances. So what is inside the book?
The book is divided in five parts:
- Choosing Your Market – treat your career as a business: start with the strategy
- Investing in Your Product — focus and dedicate energy to develop yourself
- Executing – applying your skills to create value
- Marketing — let people know you exist and you are the most capable for the job
- Maintaining Your Edge — how to stay atop of matters
Each part consists of more or less ten chapters and each chapter — on average — spans three or four pages. The brevity of each chapter combined with the pleasant writing style make this book a delight to read. Especially for an easy distracted person like myself. Fowler shares deep and clear insights on making a career in software development while leaving out all the overhead. Each chapter ends with a section called ‘Act on It!’ in which several tasks are given to directly start applying his lessons in practice. Sprinkled throughout the book are short stories of experienced experts. These stories — four or five in total — mostly illustrate the lessons of Fowler. They are indeed a kind of padding — but of a soft and pleasant type.
I was trying to summarize each chapter but while typing I realized I was trying to summarize something which is already summarized. So I stopped. This book should just be read. If you weren’t a programmer you will become one, if you were already you’ll become a better one. Taste some of the books extracts or contact me and perhaps I lend you my copy (via aNobii).
I too recommend “Be the Worst” as this definitely encourages rapid learning/growth.
Great review of a similarly great book.
For readers who follow the link to the extracts, I recommend “Be the Worst”. Surrounding yourself by top-notch, talented people is a great way to raise your game.