Archive for the ‘book reviews’ Category
Book Review of “The Passionate Programmer”
For developers that are really interested in steering their IT career instead of having their career steered for them, “The Passionate Programmer” is a must have. This book is a revision of My Job went to India. While some of it is relevant information on how to compete in a global development market, it is also talks about how to really make yourself a valuable asset to your organization. One of the more interesting ideas in the book is to not count on your technical skillsets to make yourself valuable but to start knowing your business. In other words, your business does not care if you are love working with Python or PHP but rather can you get the job done and do you know enough about your business domain. Seems extremely trite but for techies, it takes a while to get used to the idea. You can get this book at pragprog.com. Hope it raises your level of thinking about your tech career as it did mine.
Keeping an engineering notebook
If you took a lab in college like I did, you’d probably know how much your professors forced students to keep an engineering notebook. Well, it turns out that keeping an engineering notebook really pays off significantly. There’s a lot to gain by keeping a documented account of your work.
It helps you record your solutions and store it in one centralized location. How many times have you come across the same problem when working and not recall that pivotal eureka moment that let you arrive at your solution? Even if your solution is not made explicity in your notebook, even retracing the steps taken to achieve your answer will help you jog your memory faster than anything else can.
Engineering notebooks can help you to reveal previous trends. The items that wasn’t so obvious when you are in the thick of it. Things such as individual workflow habits and the effort spent on each task.
Documents a history of work as evidence Working in a creative role, it is sometimes hard to quantify your level of effort against a certain task or group of tasks. When it comes to software development, it seems there are always items that have not been taken into account of in the official project plan. We’ve all been there. There’s always “that one other thing” you have to do before you get into the main task at hand. Before you know it , the level of effort it takes to accomplish the periphery tasks snowball out of control. Next thing you know, your boss is hovering over your desk demanding to know why a task that was slated for half a day has been unresolved for a week. An engineering notebook can help you persuade them by showing them exactly how much effort is going into finding a solution. (Of course, it’s your job to estimate tasks responsibly but that’s another topic altogether).
knowledge feed: The One Minute Manager
Last year a co-worker at my last job mentioned a really good book that I should pick up called the The One Minute Manager
Here are the key points found in the One Minute Manager:
- Agree/commit to some goals. Then write them down somewhere so you can look at them daily. Figure out how your behavior is helping or hurting you from reaching the goals you set for yourself.
- Catch someone doing something right! Openly praise them for it and encourage them.
- If someone is capable of doing something but their performance is lacking, make sure you are specific in letting that person know what is wrong and how you feel about it immediately. Do not attack their character – just their behavior.
In the workplace, it is becoming rare that you find a good person that will be honest and forthcoming with your progress as well as your peers. Practicing the lessons found in The One Minute Manager can go a long way in making sure that you will be an individual that other people can count on.
