The Pragmatic Bookshelf has recently published
The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development,
(or you can save a few bucks at Amazon).
It's the 2
nd edition of
My Job Went To India, a book I think is a must-read for any programmer.
It was important enough to me that I dedicated an
entire category of this blog to discussion about about it, in fact.
(A disclaimer for you: I read this book as a reviewer and haven't yet made the time to go through the finished
product, so some of what I'm about to say may change. That said, I can only imagine that it got better before
going to publication, so I don't expect anyone would be disappointed.)
The Passionate Programmer retains that status of being a must-read. It adds a few new chapters and
removes a couple of others, but more importantly it changes the framing from the negative view of "save your job"
to what
My Job Went to India was always
really about anyway: "creating a remarkable career in software
development."
Here's what I had to say about it for the blurb:
Six short months before I read Chad's book, I was on the verge of
changing careers. Through a series of accidents from November to
May, I decided not only to stick with software development but to be
passionate about it while striving to be great. With a healthy dose of
inspiration, the book you're now holding served as a road map for
achieving those goals.
It truly is an excellent map that helped me find my way from Quit Town to making the decision to be
passionate about hacking and life in general, starting this blog, and striving to leave the realm
of the unclean masses in our profession whose exploits we read about so often.
If you read MJWTI and understood the positive aspects of it, this book isn't
that important since
you know most of it already.
I'd have purchased it anyway, but you may feel differently. That's Okay.
However, if you felt you'd be embarrassed if someone saw you holding the first version - or just
haven't read it before - I
strongly recommend picking up a copy of this version and
going through it. Don't just read it though - apply it. At the end of every chunk of advice there is a list
of activities that you can perform. Don't just gloss over them; make it a point to actually do some of them.
It's short enough to read through in one or two sittings. But there's enough content in there to keep you busy for
a couple of years.
If you've read this book or the 1
st edition, what did
you think about it? Am I overenthusiastic?
I look forward to covering the new chapters as time allows over the next few weeks. I hope you'll join me in
the discussion.
Hey! Why don't you make your life easier and subscribe to the full post
or short blurb RSS feed? I'm so confident you'll love my smelly pasta plate
wisdom that I'm offering a no-strings-attached, lifetime money back guarantee!
Leave a comment
There are no comments for this entry yet.
Leave a comment
