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anushanarasimhan's review
3.0
The title seems misleading. I don't see anything about passion in the essays. This is more like a self-help book to keep your job from getting outsourced.
Some of the tips are good indeed, but we've seen them all in better books. Recommended for programmers who read books on career advice.
Some of the tips are good indeed, but we've seen them all in better books. Recommended for programmers who read books on career advice.
marksutherland's review
2.0
This book is a great example of the state of most non-technical programming writing, in that it mostly exists to stroke the author's ego and give a pat on the head to his gen-x American colleagues.
In its original form it was a list of tips aimed to help American programmers avoid having their jobs outsourced from under them, written as a series of short blog-style chapters that are not long enough to cover their topic, let alone dive deep enough to provide any insight.
Everything the book looks at is better discussed in other books, such as [b:Being Geek: The Software Developer's Career Handbook|8473471|Being Geek The Software Developer's Career Handbook|Michael Lopp|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348343647s/8473471.jpg|13338194] which is a far better software career advice book, and [b:The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master|4099|The Pragmatic Programmer From Journeyman to Master|Andrew Hunt|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1386925692s/4099.jpg|7809] from the same publishers which has much more useful technical content.
There's nothing particularly terrible about the book, but I can't think of anyone I'd recommend this to who wouldn't be better served by other materials. It's a textbook example of the vacuous echo chamber of modern technology, rehashing concepts that were better covered decades ago with a sprinkling of self-help platitudes and quotes from better authors.
In its original form it was a list of tips aimed to help American programmers avoid having their jobs outsourced from under them, written as a series of short blog-style chapters that are not long enough to cover their topic, let alone dive deep enough to provide any insight.
Everything the book looks at is better discussed in other books, such as [b:Being Geek: The Software Developer's Career Handbook|8473471|Being Geek The Software Developer's Career Handbook|Michael Lopp|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348343647s/8473471.jpg|13338194] which is a far better software career advice book, and [b:The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master|4099|The Pragmatic Programmer From Journeyman to Master|Andrew Hunt|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1386925692s/4099.jpg|7809] from the same publishers which has much more useful technical content.
There's nothing particularly terrible about the book, but I can't think of anyone I'd recommend this to who wouldn't be better served by other materials. It's a textbook example of the vacuous echo chamber of modern technology, rehashing concepts that were better covered decades ago with a sprinkling of self-help platitudes and quotes from better authors.
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