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The Passionate Programmer

Chad Fowler (Goodreads Author),

David Heinemeier Hansson (Foreword by)

3.95 · Rating details · 3,846 ratings · 214 reviews

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 ...more

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Paperback, 219 pages

Published June 4th 2009 by Pragmatic Bookshelf (first published January 1st 2009)

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Apr 24, 2014 Mark rated it it was ok

This book is a great example of the state of most non-technical programming writing, in that it mostly exists to stroke the author's ego and give a pat on the head to his gen-x American colleagues.

In its original form it was a list of tips aimed to help American programmers avoid having their jobs outsourced from under them, written as a series of short blog-style chapters that are not long enough to cover their topic, let alone dive deep enough to provide any insight.

Everything the book looks ...more

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Dec 11, 2017 Dillon rated it it was amazing

Just finished this on the plane. Am happy to write this review.
This book falls broadly into two different but related categories - 1. How to be better at your job and 2. How to plan out a good career in the IT industry. I’ll focus on the first part first. This review is really for myself so I’m going to summarize my key takeaways and perhaps editorialize a bit (though the book has plenty of opinions itself). I found a pleasant cohesiveness between what the book recommends and the Amazon Just finished this on the plane. Am happy to write this review.
This book falls broadly into two different but related categories - 1. How to be better at your job and 2. How to plan out a good career in the IT industry. I’ll focus on the first part first. This review is really for myself so I’m going to summarize my key takeaways and perhaps editorialize a bit (though the book has plenty of opinions itself). I found a pleasant cohesiveness between what the book recommends and the Amazon leadership principles.
Being better at your job:
* Focus on being an asset to the business. A computer programmer doesn’t work in isolation. I am paid by a business that hired me to solve problems within a specific domain in order to positively influence the bottom line, and I’m trusted with the responsibility to thoroughly understand the trade offs and make the decisions that fit best within the business context. A software engineer is a problem solver first, and is not paid to be a technology zealot.
* That said, be a technology zealot. Understand how technologies work from the bottom up so that you can thoroughly understand the solutions you recommend and implement. Learn different languages on the side and read up on the industry. Don’t become the carpenter with only one tool that he fits into use for every job. Go deep and go wide.
* Don’t overpromise - learn to say no. Admit when you don’t know. In short, this will help you earn trust.
* Own your mistakes. Don’t try to make mistakes, but don’t be so afraid to own them, and when you do make a mistake, own it and start working towards a solution right away. Fail fast and never try to prolong the time between bug discovery and action.
* Learn to communicate well with people who don’t code. Assume that everyone your company hires is important to the business and when the need arises make a full effort to help them understand the problems you are working on and the solutions you are developing. Engineers are far from the only thing required for a successful team.
* Related to the top point - learn the business. Have at least a rough understanding of where the money comes in from and how various teams contribute to business needs. This will help you make more enlightened first guesses, conversations, and final decisions when it comes to practical engineering decisions.
* Don’t silo yourself or try to make yourself “irreplaceable” through similar means (writing code only you understand) - that is, anything that limits rather than promotes good communication. What you are actually doing is making yourself a liability to your company. Single points of failure are never good.
* Budget your time. Personally, I’ve found the time-blocking mechanism described here and in Deep Work to be very helpful when I know what I need to get done. Set a hard start and finish to your day. Like that dragon thing in the fantastic beasts movie, your tasks will expand and contract (within reason) to the time that you budget for them. The 40-hour week is generally a good guide. Make your 8 hours of work focused and impactful. I used to be skeptical about this point, and certainly there are some weeks where this isn’t feasible, but more hours doesn’t always equate to more productivity. The Effective Engineer and Rest: Why We Get a more Work Done When We Work Less also effectively drive this point home. Guard against burnout.
* Always try and know what you need to get done. A mediocre employee needs to be told what to do, whereas a good one takes initiative and figures out what to focus on.
* No task is beneath you. Do a good job even with the mundane tasks. Be present in whatever you’re doing.
* Learn to enjoy maintenance. Lower expectations actually provide a good opportunity to surprise and delight.
* Learn a new language to learn to think differently. It’s fun too.
* Hold yourself accountable. Every day, ask yourself if you’ve learned something new or become a better engineer than you were yesterday. In either case, ask yourself what about the day made it so.

Crafting a career:
* Learn to predict industry trends. Keep up with the technology news. Don’t let yourself become a dinosaur. Read books, articles, and papers. Learn learn learn.
* Contribute to open source projects (erm..may not be possible for employees of all tech companies). A good place to start is by improving test suite coverage in a lot of projects.
* Try to get on teams where there are an abundance of better engineers to learn from. This will always be possible excepting a few of the truly great. Being surrounded by better players will make you better. Don’t look for situations where you will be the smartest person there.
* Make the hang. Don’t be afraid to approach technology leaders and try to glean wisdom from them. Most people are happy to help.
* Follow your curiosity. It may lead to unforeseen opportunities. Having written that out just now, I realize that this is probably a common fortune cookie message.

There’s more, but those were the top ones for me. I’d also recommend Bob Martin’s The Clean Coder and Edmund Lau’s The Effective Engineer, but I think this one’s the best so far. May just be the recency effect though, I should go through those again. ...more

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Nov 18, 2009 Himanshu rated it it was amazing

This is by far the most inspirational book I have read so far this year. Chad Fowler is a respected authority in the Ruby programming community and this book is aimed at aspiring software such as myself. The main theme in the book and what I really got out of it in the end is the suggestion of paying attention to not only acquiring cutting edge skills but also indulging in self-marketing and networking in person. He suggests treating your career as a product that you work on improving non-stop ...more

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Jul 19, 2014 Yevgeniy Brikman rated it liked it

Pros: it's good to see a book that encourages people to take a more disciplined look at their careers. The book covers many important ideas for being a successful programmer: work with people better than you; don't listen to your parents; be a generalist; find a mentor; learn how to fail; learn to say no; build your brand.

Cons: the voice used in the book feels wrong--at times, it sounds like an infomercial or self help book. There are a number of weird programmer stereotypes and a strange focus ...more

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Mar 11, 2015 André Pinto rated it it was ok

this looks to me like the point of view of someone that lost any passion for programming as an art/craft, to start seeing it from the typical egocentric manager point of view. I read the whole book simply to have a glimpse of what someone with this attitude really thinks. good technical managers should feel uncomfortable with the limited mindset that is promoted on the book.

there are a few interesting and useful "blog posts" but several others could possibly be part of an anti-pattern book on ...more

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Feb 06, 2013 caisah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: programming-advice

This was a great read. The author tries to explain what skills and habits a programmer has to develop in order to be successful.

The chapters are short and every one of them ends with a tiny to do paragraph meant to help you develop a new skill or improve an old one. There are some analogies between the processes a programmer should follow and the ones a musician would.(The author himself being a saxophone player).

Almost every chapter is well argumented. Several examples and analogies are ...more

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Aug 06, 2018 Roberta Arcoverde rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: computers

I heard about this book when it was first published, in 2009. Fresh out of university, I was in the beginning of my career as a - very passionate, for the record - software developer. I remember reading The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master and a *lot* of other then-famous programming books, which were very useful then and are still worth reading now. Unfortunately, I don't think The Passionate Programmer aged as well.

Overall, the writing feels too egocentric for my taste. One of I heard about this book when it was first published, in 2009. Fresh out of university, I was in the beginning of my career as a - very passionate, for the record - software developer. I remember reading The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master and a *lot* of other then-famous programming books, which were very useful then and are still worth reading now. Unfortunately, I don't think The Passionate Programmer aged as well.

Overall, the writing feels too egocentric for my taste. One of the most cringeworthy chapters describes the author's frustration with a former manager that sounds unprofessional at best and childish at worst. Here's an example:

When I was sitting down talking about my performance review (over the phone) with my beloved manager, I muted my phone when she said “presence.” I didn’t want the laugh to be audible. I wondered if she could hear the half-grimace and half-smile that I couldn’t wipe from my lips for the rest of our conversation. (...) Most of us who were willing to share our feelings disliked this manager. She did little to command respect, so it wasn’t much of a surprise.

When suggesting developers should better understand the business they work for (something I wholeheartedly agree with), I also felt like the author meant well but the wording was just not great:

Nonprogrammers are, on the average, as intelligent as programmers. (That is to say that most of them aren’t very intelligent, but a few of them really are.) Chances are high that your customer is just as smart as you but just doesn’t happen to know how to program a computer. That’s OK.

Yes. I can't imagine what kind of audience the author had in mind to write something that obvious, and even slightly insulting.

The book also seems to promote an idea that I presently reject: that one must be an obsessed, exceptional, competitive professional to thrive in our industry, sometimes ignoring their own preferences and pursuing whatever is "the hottest tech" out there in order to stay relevant. Probably the advice that aged the most was the one about being present: the world is way more distributed today than it was ten years ago, so "set some time on your calendar to actually phone your coworkers and talk to them about trivial things" sounds just terrible.

I gave it two stars because I liked the format - small chapters, (mostly) ending on actionable items. However, a lot of those are shallow, non-technical advice (as opposed as those found on The Pragmatic Programmer/Code Complete) that rarely escape the trap of sounding like self-help cliché. ...more

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Feb 19, 2011 Milutin rated it it was ok

I am glad that the recent ideas about a career as a programmer are written in one book. I get better insight than from reading bits in blogs and tweets. However the author is too personal, and he is writing too much about himself. So if you are not his friend or have similar experience for example your are not a jazz musician than it's boring and you skip half of the book. And it's short one.

It's enough to read the table of content:
Lead or Bleed?
Supply and Demand
Coding Don’t Cut It Anymore
Be ...more

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Dec 30, 2010 Robert Boyd rated it liked it

Shelves: softwareengineering, career

This is one book I wish I had at the beginning of my career. Or maybe I wish I could force any of my past non-tech managers or clients to read. It does a solid job of describing many of the realities of being a software craftsman.

That said, I have to agree with a lot of the lukewarm reviews that there aren't really any earth-shattering revelations that will change the way you work if you're already established in this profession. Self analysis is always a good thing though, and this book dishes ...more

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Feb 10, 2019 Boni Aditya rated it it was amazing

Shelves: coding-programming

This book along with the Pragmatic Programmers, must be read by a programmer. These works would have saved me and other budding programmers from wasting tons of hours and set us straight in our path, when we are wading through a thick fog due to lack of direction, these books could have helped. The author is an experienced writer and his book
"I lost my job to India" did not sell well as he acknowledges in the introduction of this book, because that book was more of a rant than a solution. This book along with the Pragmatic Programmers, must be read by a programmer. These works would have saved me and other budding programmers from wasting tons of hours and set us straight in our path, when we are wading through a thick fog due to lack of direction, these books could have helped. The author is an experienced writer and his book
"I lost my job to India" did not sell well as he acknowledges in the introduction of this book, because that book was more of a rant than a solution. Everybody is aware of the problem i.e. losing jobs to outsourcing but he did not delve on the solution or how to save yourself from the cheaper onslaught! This book on the other hand teachers you how to rise above the crowd. How to differentiate yourself as a programmer worthy of hiring over a team overseas. This book deals with ECONOMICS of PROGRAMMING at a macro level and at a micro level. The book considers the programmer as a the product and teaches them how to build themselves as a super product and how to market that product. It is incredible, the programmer is the weapon!

I was impressed with the author thoroughly, his concepts are out of the world. He talked about one concept at a time much like how they were discussed in the Pragmatic programmer. I have seen his ted talk where he talks about the Pragmatic programmer and how it inspired him to write this book. The Pragmatic programmer restricts itself strictly to the technical aspects of programming i.e. the pitfalls of programmers that cause huge disasters in execution of the project while completely ignoring the life of the programmer outside the terminal. This book out focusses on all the other aspects, like marketing your work, dealing with managers, prioritizing your work, planning your career, dealing with testing, maintenance vs new projects, timelines, dealing with clients, dealing with stakeholders, the importance of language, the importance of putting it in writing and the importance of showing your face among many others.

I was particularly impressed with the concepts of programming by coincidence, which was also taught in the pragmatic programmer. The other concept which impressed me the most is the concept of Fail - Copy - Repeat Cycle, the number of times you repeat this cycle the better you become. He also tried to differentiate between a quick read of the code or scanning the code versus a complete typing of the code and he compared that with what Hunter S. Thompson did, by typing word to word the works of Hemmingway and Fitz Gerald! To differentiate between Active and Passive learning. Also that Gates finished his programs out of the trash cans in Harward. Copying builds muscle memory!

The author also lived in Bangalore with his wife, thus adding more credibility to his account. His search for a better eco-system only showed him the similarity of eco-systems in various clones of the silicon valley. He also wondered if people have completely forgotten to develop client side software, and rightly points out that the barrier of entry for failure is quite higher, with a web based interface over a client side software. The effort is also greatly minimized for a web based interface.

Value Rigidity, The other concept which was intriguing, is dealt well through the south Indian Monkey trick, where in we refuse to give up our beliefs even at the detriment of our careers. We stick to the technology obstinately knowing full well that the time has run out for it. This is also how religious beliefs are formed. Thus the author compared the choices of technologies i.e. browsers programming languages and others akin to religious superstitious or religious beliefs. It is always important to try other stuff in the menu, regularly to check if there is something better out there and always challenge our beliefs

A FEW OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED IN THE TEXT

ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE
THE MIRACLE OF MINDFULNESS
MICROSERFS DOUGLAS COUPLAND
Jack Kerouac NOVELS
10 Day MBA
My Job went to India and all I got was this lousy book
Extreme Programming XP
The pragmatic programmer
PURPLE COW
LEADING THE REVOLUTION ...more

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Apr 25, 2010 Francis Fish rated it it was amazing

Shelves: techie-tubby

I had this book on my phone and read it in small chunks. It's written in a way that lets you easily dip in and out of it.

It's an interesting read and gives you exercises to try at the end of each small vignette. I think that if you try them you will benefit greatly.

I've been having a career for a long time and found it interesting that Chad validates a lot of things I have discovered empirically over the years, particularly about understanding why your employer employs you to have fun writing ...more

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Sep 17, 2016 Brian rated it liked it

Shelves: computer-science

Let me start by saying I cringe whenever I hear people talk about what they're "passionate" about in a career sense. It's an over-used and hyperbolic adjective that's turned into yet another buzzword. If you're really "passionate" about customer service QA or something, perhaps you need to get out more. Life is short; save "passionate" for things that really deserve it.

That said, this is a great "idea" book, in that it's a fast, easy read, and each short chapter gives you a topic to think about, ...more

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Dec 29, 2015 Harish Sankar rated it liked it

Shelves: abandoned, from-a-library

Personal Review: I liked the book, but did not "really like it"

Originally this book was intended for US citizens to protect their jobs.
"Your Job went to India" was its initial title.
And as an Indian, I cannot accept the motivation for the author to write the book- to save Americans their jobs.
Truth is- it is a level playing field, and there is no job security anymore.
The author realised this, and hence changed the title.

Its a good book- well written with action points to improve your programming ...more

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Feb 15, 2013 Marco Emmanuel Patiño Acosta rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, must-read

This is one of those books that every programmer must read eventually. It provides you a full list of tips and to-do's in your daily work that will improve your overall role in your current company. It also provides great analogies about how being a musician helped him to achieve goals and how you should not fear to lose your job against outsourcing but rather become a more valuable programmer. Also at the end of every chapter it has a full list of things to do so it just invites you to keep ...more

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Aug 16, 2018 Wouter rated it did not like it

As an experienced programmer it's safe to say that Chad fails to see the real important problems to be solved in the software industry, instead of trying to sell me to "research the market and pick a programming language that's hot". This read like a book for applied, applied programmers that haven't yet managed to really understand core principles: abstract structuring. And yet, there's a small chapter called "invest in your intelligence", right before "your biggest career fears"? I might have ...more

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Jul 24, 2017 Zeh Fernando rated it liked it

Some good ideas and advices, but a little bit too much self help kool aid at times.

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Jan 14, 2018 Rahul Aragade rated it really liked it

Shelves: ebooks, technical-reading

A very good book. This book convincingly explains what should your approach be towards your software career. A must read. (and future re-read)

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Jul 04, 2011 David rated it really liked it

This is a good companion to the Pragmatic Programmer (both belonging to "The Pragmatic Bookshelf"). I enjoyed the fact that author was/is a professional musician turned programmer because I can relate. It consists of small chapters all aimed to making your programming career remarkable. Some interesting ideas include thinking about your career like it is a business, be the worst among other programmers (like in music it will force to step up your game), teach what you know, contributing to an ...more

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Jun 25, 2013 Bart Bakker rated it really liked it

Very interesting read about working in the field and getting better at what you do.

A great example from the book is that people don't know a particular technology yet 'because they didn't get an opportunity' to do that'. Isn't it your responsibility, not your managers?

The book is full of plans and things that you can do yourself, and keeps responsibility on you.

No more excuses, no more blaming others, you're not alone, you can do something about.

On the down side is that there seems to be a ...more

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Sep 26, 2010 Christian Brumm rated it really liked it

Shelves: cs-software

Solid 360 degrees career advice for software developers, worthwhile read for everyone serious about his career in Software Technology.
Like other books in the "Pragmatic Programmer" series most advice and stories told apply to work life or even life in general. The book makes clear that YOU are responsible for your happiness and career and contains some actionable "tasks" for you to do to start on a piece of advice given.
I would have given 5 stars if the anecdotes would give a more coherent ...more

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May 07, 2017 David Tan rated it it was amazing

This is an excellent book! This book offers really good and practical advice on how manage the various challenges faced by any programmer, e.g. how to manage the deluge of information and things to learn, how to manage failure, how to manage workload, how to excel in your team, how to make your team excel, etc. There are several principles and heuristics which I found to be helpful in managing life and growth as a developer

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Feb 14, 2014 Emad Mokhtar rated it it was amazing

I really enjoyed every page of this book, if you want or you are passionate programmer/developer will find this book is very good and the best in this book that it is written as group of tips under chapters that group them by the area of improvement.
This book will always be on my shelf so any time I want a tip in one or more of improvement area I will open in the read.

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Oct 01, 2010 Josh Hamacher rated it did not like it

Don't waste your money on this book. All of the advice in this book is either obvious to someone who is truly interested in programming as a profession or else boils down to "don't be true to your personality, force yourself to be something you're not". I was not at all impressed.

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Sep 30, 2011 Sergey Shishkin rated it it was amazing

I only regret I haven't read this book 5 years ago and had to learn all of this on my own ;)

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Aug 04, 2017 Kevin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

All of the praises and criticisms I have seen about this book seem right on point. The overall message/feeling/philosophy it conveys is on the money and does a good job. But there is a lot of odd bits, too, where it either goes into too much detail on some aspects (generally about the author, specifically) and then just the most superficially and vague bits for things that seem like they should have had more devoted to them. I definitely don't think this is up there with The Pragmatic ...more

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Dec 30, 2018 Andrew Komarovsky rated it liked it · review of another edition

Good book about Software Development field and Includes tons of useful advices and tips on building a successful career.

This book is more useful if you just started your career as you find a lot of tips are trivial if you are an experienced software engineer or manager. Though it is useful to go through this tips from time time even if you have lots of experience.

Additionally, I find some tips like the ones about maintenance or contracting are tailored to author personal career choices and “ ...more

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Dec 13, 2018 Luan Nguyen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: tech

The Passionate Programmer by Chad Fowler is a GREAT book which helps developers create a Remarkable Career & Radically Successful Career in Software Development.

My Actionable Notes:
- Have clear goals and keep track your progress.
- Creating a list improvements. Take action to be better than yesterday.
- Writing everyday (notes, tips, tutorials, advice, experiences, courses).
- Research new technology and build simple project.
- Learn new language that makes you think new way.
- Write code ...more

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Dec 17, 2018 Youssef Ben Jemia rated it liked it

Average book. Brought up some good points but was not very well written. The kind of book that sounds like it’s trying to teach you how to live rather than tell you interesting stories to back up theories. The kind of book that could probably be summarized into bullet points
I’d recommend skimming through it.

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Sep 06, 2018 Katja Riya rated it liked it

Shelves: business-selfhelp-etc, skills, it, 2018

Such a "self-help" book in the IT world.
I have a double impression of the book: simultaneously motivating and demotivating, very impregnated with the author's ego, but pretending to be anti-ego driven.
It's super fast & easy to read and I think it still worth to read, as it helps to improve your thinking more in "business" terms & ambitions.

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Jan 29, 2018 Julian Horst rated it really liked it

Very nice read, has a lot of interesting mind sets and brings light on every relationship between different departures in a software company. It tells a harsh but necessary truth regarding a lot of job specific topics. Sometimes it goes too far into specifics for me, which is a bit of a stretch occasionally.
Definitely worth a read for every programmer.

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About Chad Fowler

Chad Fowler

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Chad Fowler has been a software developer and manager for some of the world's largest corporations. He recently lived and worked in India, setting up and leading an offshore software development center. He is co-founder of Ruby Central, Inc., a non-profit corporation responsible for the annual International Ruby Conference and The International Rails Conference, and is a leading contributor in the ...more