The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development

by Fowler, Chad

• ISBN13: 9781934356340
• ISBN10: 1934356344
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781680505108
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-07-01
• Publisher: Oreilly & Associates Inc
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

Success in today's IT environment requires you to view your career as a business endeavour. In this book, you'll learn how to become an entrepreneur, driving your career in the direction of your choosing. You'll learn how to build your software development career step by step, following the same path that you would follow if you were building, marketing, and selling a product. After all, your skills themselves are a product. The choices you make about which technologies to focus on and which business domains to master have at least as much impact on your success as your technical knowledge itself; don't let those choices be accidental. We'll walk through all aspects of the decision-making process, so you can ensure that you're investing your time and energy in the right areas. You'll develop a structured plan for keeping your mind engaged and your skills fresh.

Author Biography

Chad Fowler is an internationally known software developer, trainer, manager, speaker, and musician. Over the past decade he has worked with some of the world's largest companies and most admired software developers. He loves to program computers. As part of his role as CTO of InfoEther, Inc., he spends much of his time solving hard problems for customers in the Ruby language. He is a co-organizer of RubyConf, RailsConf, and RailsConf Europe, and he is the author or coauthor of a number of popular software books.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Introduction	p. xvii
Choosing Your Market	p. 1
Lead or Bleed?	p. 5
Supply and Demand	p. 9
Coding Don't Cut It Anymore	p. 13
Be the Worst	p. 16
Invest in Your Intelligence	p. 19
Don't Listen to Your Parents	p. 23
Be a Generalist	p. 28
Be a Specialist	p. 33
Don't Put All Your Eggs in Someone Else's Basket	p. 36
Love It or Leave It	p. 38
Investing in Your Product	p. 45
Learn to Fish	p. 49
Learn How Businesses Really Work	p. 52
Find a Mentor	p. 54
Be a Mentor	p. 58
Practice, Practice, Practice	p. 60
The Way That You Do It	p. 65
On the Shoulders of Giants	p. 68
Automate Yourself into a Job	p. 71
Executing	p. 79
Right Now	p. 82
Mind Reader	p. 84
Daily Hit	p. 87
Remember Who You Work For	p. 89
Be Where You're At	p. 92
How Good a Job Can I Do Today?	p. 95
How Much Are You Worth?	p. 98
A Pebble in a Bucket of Water	p. 101
Learn to Love Maintenance	p. 104
Eight-Hour Burn	p. 108
Learn How to Fail	p. 111
Say "No"	p. 114
Don't Panic	p. 117
Say It, Do It, Show It	p. 121
Marketing... Not Just for Suits	p. 129
Perceptions, Perschmeptions	p. 133
Adventure Tour Guide	p. 136
Me Rite Reel Nice	p. 139
Being Present	p. 141
Suit Speak	p. 145
Change the World	p. 147
Let Your Voice Be Heard	p. 149
Build Your Brand	p. 153
Release Your Code	p. 155
Remarkability	p. 158
Making the Hang	p. 161
Maintaining Your Edge	p. 167
Already Obsolete	p. 170
You've Already Lost Your Job	p. 173
Path with No Destination	p. 175
Make Yourself a Map	p. 177
Watch the Market	p. 179
That Fat Man in the Mirror	p. 181
The South Indian Monkey Trap	p. 184
Avoid Waterfall Career Planning	p. 188
Better Than Yesterday	p. 191
Go Independent	p. 195
Have Fun	p. 199
Resources	p. 201
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