Book Review — Passionate Programmer
This book is about building a remarkable career as a programmer. It doesn’t cover any technical stuff, but rather gives advice on what to do and what to learn to improve your skill and status as a programmer.
Name
The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development
Author
Amazon Link
Rating
5/5
Favorite Quote
“If fame means that lots of people know who you are, then having one more person know about you makes you more famous”.
Why I Read It
Something about the title caught my interest. I guess it made me wonder whether I’m a passionate programmer (and what it means to be one).
So I guessed that picking up the book would help me better understand what being passionate about programming is all about, and what could I do to achieve it. I couldn’t have been more right.
Description
The book is comprised 53 short chapters, each containing one advice to get you closer to building a remarkable career, such as: “Find a Mentor”, “Learn to Love Maintenance”, “Learn How Businesses Really Work” and “Say ‘No’”.
In each of the chapters these advice are explained succinctly, with a short analysis on why they are important and how you can follow them correctly. I found the way the author logically explains himself and supports his arguments in each of this chapters to be truly amazing. Some advice are pretty counter-intuitive, but I was nonetheless convinced to follow each of them.
The chapters have actionable suggestions at the end. That makes it pretty easy to understand and apply the lessons in the book. And if you apply each of them, you’ll be 53 steps closer to a remarkable career in software development.
This book really lived to my expectations. It gives pretty solid advice. I wish I had read it earlier, since I had to learn many of the lessons in this book the hard way.
Who Is It For
Any programmer, specially those just starting their careers. Actually, most of the advice works for any craftsman: musicians, novelists, copywriters, internet marketers, entrepreneurs, etc. The thing about this book is that most of it isn’t about programming. It’s about craftsmanship, whatever your craft may be.
Still, if you’re a programmer you’ll find this book particularly useful, specially if you have trouble finding ways to become better at what you do.
Favorite Lesson Learned
I really liked the chapter about being the worst player in the band.
The author draws on his experience as a jazz artist, where, as he tells the reader, it’s a good habit to try and play in bands with better musicians than yourself.
He states that being the worst musician in the band will inevitably transform you into a better player, and that this can also be applied to programming.
As he explains, this habit works for two reasons. First, you probably aren’t really as bad you think you are, so the so-called “better programmers” are really more or less at your same level. They’ll probably benefit from working with you as much as you will from them. Second, just by being around better people you’ll start to acquire the habits and skills that made them so good in the first place.
I really liked this concept, so I’ve been trying to do this ever since I read about it.
Length
232 pages
