A fire-side chat about programming

Every once in a while I go through a period of introspection where I pose questions like “why am I solving the same stuff all the time?”, “is there a better way to be doing this?” and “what’s around the corner?”. I think it’s pretty healthy, and I prefer to give it a good two weeks of thought straight rather than to constantly be going through that process (which I find pretty distracting at the 10k foot level). As part of that I have been reading an awesome book in the last week called “Secrets of the Rock Star Programmers“. It’s a collection of interviews with some of the biggest/loudest names in programming, and contains the sorts of conversations that you would have down at the pub with these guys. I think that it’s quite an introspective, passing-on-wisdom type of book in the vein of “The Pragmatic Programmer” (TPP), but for the Java/.Net generation. Unlike TPP, it covers subjects around the meta-level stuff like keeping up to date versus trend chasing, and work-life balance amongst the day-to-day grind of pending deadlines. The really interesting thing is the common threads coming out despite the personalities and differences in approach. The book’s style is very different to TPP’s in that it is not prescriptive, but rather lets you draw your own conclusions. It has been an interesting read that I think I will keep coming back to, and one that I think I would not have gotten as much out of at the beginning of my career. I strongly recommend it, especially if you happen to be going through a “so, what’s it all about, then?” stage and don’t happen to have your favourite rock star around to chat to.