This post was first published on CoderHood as 11 Books All Software Engineers Must Read. CoderHood is a blog dedicated to the human dimension of so...
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Good list with the glaring exception of the Scrum book. That is the dumbest idea in the history of software development! Sheesh - a social network to keep everyone on edge and kissing butt with the scrum leader? The truth never ever comes out in group meetings. Scrum makes clueless leaders think they're accomplishing something. Scrum is not for me. If I see the word "scrum" on a job description, I pass it by.
The best method is to find inspiration then focus, focus, focus!
Lorenzo - I also started writing software in 1984 (embedded).
Thank you, David. Glad you found the list useful.
Oh yes, Scrum is a touchy subject :) It has lots of haters. It is interesting that, in your case, you feel like the Scrum Master is the main problem. You were probably exposed to a bad one (or two).
Unfortunately, Scrum is often implemented poorly and partially. People pick and choose parts of it, they think that the word "Master" means something that it doesn't mean, and they don't really understand the big picture... for example, when it should be used, when it shouldn't, why certain things are in done in certain ways, etc.
The book in the list gives a good foundation for that understanding. I am going to venture to say that, if you didn't have good experiences with Scrum, that is probably a perfect book for you to consider. Just to consider :-) ...and yes, I know you probably won't, and you probably have real horror stories, but I had to try... :) :)
Lorenzo - you're response is very close to what I've been thinking about Scrum. I'm a grizzled veteran programmer with way too much experience to be affected by what a peach-fuzz wannabe manager thinks I should be doing between now and lunch. It creates bad blood, as you might imagine.
I ordered three books off your list! Innovators, Practicing Mind, and Quiet.
"Scrum: The Art of Doing Half the Work in Twice the Time"
This seems like a pretty random list of books. Certainly not mandatory reading. Nothing against the books on the list, I haven't read most of them after all. But then I have read other books (not on the list), plenty of articles, and generally survived in this industry for two decades.
One thing that sticks out after two decades is the value of working with people who have different experience than me and maybe have read different books and think about problems in a different way. Confirmation bias is not what you are looking for in a team: you want diversity.
The list might seem random but is far from it. The fact that you want a different wealth of experiences and the fact that those books are not traditional "development" book is the reason why I put together this list. Reading that material won't make an engineer a better coder, but it will help making an engineer a stronger asset to teams and companies.
I highly recommend the inclusion of Dreaming in Code by Scott Rosenberg. It's a very insightful (and sometimes funny) look into how software projects play out in the real world, and why things go wrong.
If I may add a suggestion that seems inline with many on this list, "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman is a deep dive into how we think and make decisions. Highly recommended.
I agree. That is a good book.
I started in coding in 83 and will continue till I die. Curiously, I've been challenging my brain starting at age 52 by learning Italian. Amo a parlare con te circa tech in Italiano.
Excellent! You are another old-timer. What was your first language? Or perhaps I should say... che linguaggio hai imparato all'inizio della tua cariera? :)
Mio primo lingua era RPG. Poi Cobol. Poi Java. Poi Groovy e Grails. Poi Ruby e Rails. Anche io avuto scritto libro sul Java e moltissimo articoli sul tech. Vedi mio articoli su avvenimento
vecchio: dev.to/corgibytes/on-getting-older....
A book that built on ideas that Tipping Point introduced is Made to Stick from Chip & Dan Heath. I'm only about 20% through, but you might enjoy it.
Another one is Crossing the Chasm. It provides more marketing and sales learning but does it with modern high tech context like Salesforce.com's success.
Great list!
Thank you, Alyss!! I actually read both. You are right, those are some great books!!
Oh dear ... Steve Jobs, please not again ... sorry, but this dude was just a hype wave and then dissolved. A software engineer needs to learn other stuff.
And scrum is overrated. Too much. Not practicable in most companies.
Unless i'm mistaken, he was recommending the book. He wasnt suggesting you idolize the person.
There's a lot to be learned about the man (good and bad), and the companies/software/teams he built.
(And i have never actually read the book, i'm just looking at this with an open mind.)
No Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship ? really?
Thanks for the recommendation, just ordered 'Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions'. Looking forward to reading them.
Excellent choice. Fun book.
This is a great reading list, thanks for sharing.
awesome list of books, Lorenzo
Thank you for adding more books to my reading list!
Would add that "Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions" is also brilliant as an audiobook on Audible.
My pleasure!
I have read a few of these. Interesting list of books here! Pragmatic Thinking and Learning is one of my favorite soft skill books!
I really like how you explain why you think the books are relevant. Thanks for writing!
Thanks for sharing!
My pleasure!
Any list of books that "software engineers must read" which doesn't include Snow Crash is suspect.
Thanks for sharing, good books
Great list. This is practically a Wish List / Gift List. Thanks!
Steve Jobs? Really?