Priyank Verma

Here we go for the 3rd time. My 3rd book for 2015’s 10 book reading challenge is The Passionate Programmer. 

I picked this book from pragmatic programmer book shelf. All books listed there are awesome and are a must read. Anyways continuing with this book, it was an awesome reading experience. It was one of those books you wish to never end.

The author covers many aspects of what constitutes a not good but a great software developing career. These aspects are not related to coding in a cubicle with heads stuck to monitor, but are much more diverse then that. This book is an eye opener on how software community works and what is your role.

Author used to be a professional jazz musician before becoming programmer thus uses music community as analogy to give a better perspective towards things from time to time.

Here are the summarizing points for the book :

1. Coding don;t cut it anymore. Author makes it very clear that you have to do a lot more than that to have a great career.
2. Be a specialist. But be generalist enough to be someone other people can rely on for their problems.
3. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Don’t invest all your time in learning one technology that belongs to some company. If you have to do so, choose some open source one.
4. Learn the business model of your company. Even if that is irrelevant to your current role at the company.
5. Keep track how much you are really worth? Is the amount company is spending on you worth it? Work real hard to increase your worth.
6. Learn to say “No”. Never over commit. Cause’ if you fail, you will disappoint many. Commit only what you can deliver, in fact try to deliver more than expected.
7. Let you voice be heard. Write weblogs, be active in forums, help others. People should be able to learn about you.
8. It is all about perception. One should really work on this one. If you are having an previous image in front of your employer, it can be a game changer.
9. You’re already obsolete. Your job at your company as already changed since the day you joined. The industry is changing very rapidly. So should you..
10. Last and most important one is don’t be rigid with your work and skill set. Make yourself malleable so that you can change with the ever changing industry.