The Passionate Programmer

Success in today’s IT environment requires you to view your career as a business endeavor. 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.

You’ll learn how to assess your skills in terms of where they fit on the value chain, driving you away from commodity skills and toward those that are in high demand. Through a mix of high-level, thought-provoking essays and tactical “Act on It” sections, you will come away with concrete plans you can put into action immediately. You’ll also get a chance to read the perspectives of several highly successful members of our industry from a variety of career paths. As with any product or service, if nobody knows what you’re selling, nobody will buy. We’ll walk through the often-neglected world of marketing, and you’ll create a plan to market yourself both inside your company and to the industry in general. Above all, you’ll see how you can set the direction of your career, leading to a more fulfilling and remarkable professional life.

Contents

Part I—Choosing YourMarket

1. Lead or Bleed?

2. Supply and Demand

3. Coding Don’t Cut It Anymore

4. Be the Worst

5. Invest in Your Intelligence

6. Don’t Listen to Your Parents

7. Be a Generalist

8. Be a Specialist

9. Don’t Put All Your Eggs in Someone Else’s Basket

10. Love It or Leave It

Part II—Investing in Your Product

11. Learn to Fish

12. Learn How Businesses Really Work

13. Find a Mentor

14. Be a Mentor

15. Practice, Practice, Practice

16. TheWay That You Do It

17. On the Shoulders of Giants

18. Automate Yourself into a Job

Part III—Executing

19. Right Now

20. Mind Reader

21. Daily Hit

22. Remember Who You Work For

23. Be Where You’re At

24. How Good a Job Can I Do Today?

25. How Much Are You Worth?

26. A Pebble in a Bucket of Water

27. Learn to Love Maintenance

28. Eight-Hour Burn

29. Learn How to Fail

30. Say “No”

31. Don’t Panic

32. Say It, Do It, Show It

Part IV—Marketing… Not Just for Suits

33. Perceptions, Perschmeptions

34. Adventure Tour Guide

35. Me Rite Reel Nice

36. Being Present

37. Suit Speak

38. Change the World

39. Let Your Voice Be Heard

40. Build Your Brand

41. Release Your Code

42. Remarkability

43. Making the Hang

Part V—Maintaining Your Edge

44. Already Obsolete

45. You’ve Already Lost Your Job

46. Path with No Destination

47. Make Yourself a Map

48. Watch the Market

49. That Fat Man in the Mirror

50. The South Indian Monkey Trap

51. Avoid Waterfall Career Planning

52. Better Than Yesterday

53. Go Independent

Review

“”Chad Fowler presents a set of no-nonsense heuristics, disciplines, and attitudes that will teach you how to respect and love your profession–and be great at it.”” – Bob Martin, President Object Mentor, Inc.

“”This book is solid GOLD! There may be hope for our “unprofession” after all! More power to you!”” – Bruce Langenbach, Independent Agile Software Entrepreneur and Passionate IT Consultant

About the Author

Chad Fowler is co-director of Ruby Central, Inc., and remains an active, driving force in the Ruby community.