I’ve been a bit bibliophilic lately. Two books I bought with my own personal money are about the thing I do for a living: writing software. How’s that for dedication?
The first of these books is Design Patterns by a group of authors affectionately know as the Gang of Four. Patterns are a way of re-using useful software designs. The book catalogues and names these designs, and explains when they should be used and the consequences of using them. There are patterns like Singleton, which is a way to have only one of a certain object in a program, and Visitor, which allows operations on data to be represented as objects.
The second book is Refactoring by Martin Fowler. This describes how to improve existing software by making a series of small changes and testing at each stage. The changes (refactorings) are given names and there are rules to follow to ensure that each refactoring does not change the outward behaviour of the program.
Both books have made me think in new ways about how to write software. Learning a programming language is only the first step towards becoming a programmer. Practice and experience go a long way towards improving the code you write, but it’s equally important to think about how you do what you do, and keep up to date with the state of the art. It’s the difference between having a profession and a job. It’s not just about getting the work done, collecting a pay check, and going home. Continuous self-improvement makes the effort worthwhile, and keeps things interesting.
So go out and buy some books related to what you do at work. Don’t just buy books that tell you how to do X with Y, read the latest and greatest thinkers in your field. Become better at what you do, and you’ll enjoy it more.
Yup, self improvement is generically A Good Thing(tm) – reading interesting stuff about what I do does keep me interested and up to speed with the direction of my chosen profession (networking and the security thereof). Maybe this is unusal
Two recommendations for a good read with a cup of cocoa – Secrets & Lies, Bruce Schneier (security in context, seminal book about the whichness of the why in networking security) and this Saturdays purchase, Cisco PIX Firewalls by Richard A. Deal which is only a little bit “How to do X with Y”. Honest.
Ah good. I’m not the only one, then! Thanks for the recommendations, the security one in particular looks very interesting.
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