The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development (Pragmatic Life)

Although written primarily in the context of programmers, the advice Chad has to offer in his book can be applied to virtually any profession in today's world. Unlike many books that attempt to impose a rigid doctrine of practices, The Passionate Programmer method for an outstanding career presents the information in a non-condescending, enjoyable way that feels like you're being guided by a trusted mentor.The first thing I found remarkable about Chad's book when I read it for the first time was the refreshingly short length of each chapter. And not to give a negative opinion on the quality of the content either, as each chapter provides complete, yet practical and concise, advice and information on the topic at hand. As the advice in each chapter is always something to come back to again and again, it makes it easy to pick the book up any time for a quick, fulfilling read.Since reading this book cover-to-cover, and now coming back to it day after day to refresh myself on the advice it offers, I've already begun to see positive change in the way I do my work, and how much satisfaction I get out of it. The process in the book is one that can truly be carried out in an agile way, iteratively acting on the concepts and advice.Usually when reading a book, I find often that some of the content feels irrelevant to what I'm doing. This is certainly not the case with The Passionate Programmer! Every chapter and sidebar in this book provides something that will be relevant to your career at some point, if not most of the time! Chad provides complete coverage of every aspect of one's career, from bettering yourself as an individual to bettering yourself for the people you work for, and practical advice on steps you can do to make your career truly enjoyable as a programmer (although as I said before, much if not all of the advice can be applied to every profession).One of my favorite parts about this book is the "Act on It!" sections at the end of many of the chapters. Each of these provides great exercises to practice your craft and better your career. If there was is one thing I can think of right now that would make a great pin-up, it would be a inspiring poster on my wall with a consolidation of each of these sections.Finally, The Passionate Programmer is written by a man who has truly lived and breathed the IT industry, especially in context of recent times and the rapid changes they've brought to the industry. That in itself gives all of the advice and knowledge in this book that much more relevance and credibility. Of all the books I've read recently, especially books about programming and the software industry, this is one that will truly stay relevant and highly recommended for new programmers and veterans of the field for years to come.

The Passionate Programmer is a good and useful book, especially for people who are early on in their programming career and wondering what and how to expand it. Before continuing, it is important to realize this is actually a 2nd edition of book with another title called "My Job Went To India (and All I Got Was This Lousy Book)" and thus if you read that book already (like me) then this book is definitively not worth it (unless you want to re-read it, like I did).The book contains 1-3 pages of short career advise tips. These tips are grouped in five parts: 1) Choosing your market, 2) Investing in your product, 3) Executing, 4) Marketing... not just for suits, and 5) Maintaining your edge. Each of these parts have about 10 tips or so and the total size of the book is about 150 pages. It is a very easy read as the tips are reasonably independent do you can just read one in about 5-10 minutes each day (or on a bus ride or so).The tips themselves are sometimes obvious such as "find a mentor" or "practice, practice, practice" but in the obvious tips, the author gives some concrete ways in which you can start that. Sometimes the advise is less obvious such as "You've already lost your job" or "Say 'no'" and at times the tips are purposely conflicting such as "be a specialist" and "be a generalist" because life isn't always simple to just follow recipes and build a career that way :PIn general, the tips together promote a career of a continuously learning software developer who knows he is part of a team and is aware that he builds software for a business and he needs to not only understand the technology but also the business he works in. I think that having more people looking at their career like that would have a positive effect on our industry. The only problem with the book is that the people who read it probably don't need it and the people who need this book most will probably never read it.All in all, a pretty decent book on programming careers. Fun and easy to read. Excellent for times when you got a couple of spare minutes and like to read one tip (I didn't suggest toilets :P). I'd recommend it for people starting a programming career. It would probably be less interesting for experienced developers and don't read it if you already read the "My Job Went To India Book". Four stars.

Brinda un panorama fuera del lado técnico, el cual es de suma importancia para cualquier desarrollador o ingeniero de software que desee llevar su carrera más allá. Es totalmente recomendable.

The book quality is good. Delivered on time.Also it tells what you need to do to be a good software engineer. I have started reading it and I liked it.

Book was already poor in content and I was going to abandon it soon anyway, but when I found this racist statement inside, I immediately deleted it and requested a refund.I mean… seriously? How can the author say something like that?Definitely not an Amazon fault (it’s quite hard to check all the books content they sell) but I’m a bit surprised nobody wrote this in the reviews yet.

I found this book in the perfect time in my career. It only would be greater if I had known about it earlier

Este es uno de los libros que incluyo como bibliografía en El Libro Negro del Programador, disponible en Amazon. Tener éxito en tu carrera como desarrollador de software profesional no es sólo una cuestión de habilidades técnicas: hay ciertos buenos hábitos (y también innumerables errores, siempre los mismos) que distinguen a un profesional de un aficionado.Si te ha gustado The Passionate Programmer, El Libro Negro del Programador sin duda también te será de ayuda indispensable para aprender de los errores de otros y mejorar en tu profesión.