Read technical books
One of the things that helped me know what I know was my passion for books and my curiosity to learn new things. I think that every programmer that cares about the future should read, at least, one technical book every year. It is part of our jobs to keep informed about new technologies and to learn as many subjects as we need to carry on our projects.
Unfortunately this is not how the vast majority of programmers behave as pointed out in “Programmers don’t read — But you should” . I see it every day when I talk to other developers, people don’t try to get updated, they only care about their election of language or technology. Yes, current developers still think that they choose what they will use in projects. It could be that way, but doing so will limit you to a small number or real opportunities.
By writing all this I don’t mean you have to learn about everything and start searching any job you could find with any technology involved. It happened before in my article called “Be proficient in one programming language” that some people confused some advice for novice programmers and started arguing about whether it is good for experienced developers to follow this approach. What I mean is that you should keep in mind to learn whatever you think will be useful for you and also to pick the best source to learn from. This requires selecting the appropriate book to buy and avoiding monkey-written books with titles made from the pattern “learn yourself XX in YY days” and similar.
By investigating a little bit around internet you’ll find a bunch of mythical books that almost everybody agree to recommend, here you have a short list that helped me a lot when starting in this field:
What books did you read recently? Post them so we can discuss about them!
Popularity: 60% [?]
on April 30th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Recently I figured that it would be nice to refresh and systematize my knowledge about algorithms so I’ve got the book ‘Algorighm design manual’ by Steven Skiena. I’ve chosen this one because it has very positive reviews. And I have to admit that I’m not disappointed. It’s really fun to read. All problems are nicely explained and author supports them with real world examples. The book is not overfilled with math, and the style is easy to read, sometimes even a bit humorous.
Also I’d like to link to a list of must-reads from another blog - http://blog.logeek.fr/2008/2/23/all-time-classics-recommended-books-for-software-developers
I think that after I’m done with ‘Algorithm… ‘ I’ll get a ‘Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life’ by Marshall B. Rosenberg from the list above, or maybe ‘The pragmatic programmer’. What’s your opinion about the latter?
on May 2nd, 2008 at 10:43 am
I recently read 37signals’ excellent ‘Getting Real’, on their approach to software development. It was an enlightening reading experience, even if most of their approaches aren’t new. It’s great to see some approaches confirmed in print.
on May 2nd, 2008 at 11:06 am
Slawek: First of all, I like the list you pointed out, I think I’m going to try one of these once I’m done with “Artificial Intelligence: a modern approach”. Thanks for the link.
What do I think about “The Pragmatic Programmer”? It’s a must-buy book for anyone who cares about writing good code and being a real developer. It teaches you the way a very experienced developer could give you good advices while at work. It helped me a lot when I started programming and sure their lessons will continue guiding me for years. 99% recommended.
on May 3rd, 2008 at 3:29 pm
big +1 on anything by Bruce Eckel. the very best of the best
I am currently re-reading the Pragmatic Programmer. Excellent but it is striking how much of it has been assimilated into the culture. e.g. “mini languages” were probably the catalyst for the DSL rage
I am also reading “Groovy Recipes” and “Programming Groovy” which are fantastic in the Groovy space. I knew a lot from the online docs but these two are much more complete
on May 16th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Code Complete by Steve McConnell
regards