Home > Articles > Programming

This chapter is from the book

Keeping Ourselves Up to Date

  • We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.
  • —Jean Baudrillard

Different people have different learning patterns and preferences, and by no means do I feel that I could describe all the possible ways a person could learn. However, the following is a small list of things we can do to keep ourselves up to date.

Books, Many Books

Having our own library, physical or electronic, is essential. We are very lucky to be in an industry where so much information is produced. However, there are many different types of books, and choosing which books to read can be a very difficult task.

  • Technology-specific books are very valuable but they expire. They are essential for the immediate need, when we want to learn a framework, language, or any other software we need to use. They are great at giving us a deep understanding of how things work and the knowledge acquired can usually be used immediately. They are also great when we are planning our next career steps. They can give us details of how to use the technologies that may be between our current job and our desired job. However, many of the technology-specific books get old extremely quickly. When a new version of the technology they cover is released, or a different way of doing things becomes more popular, they will not add as much value as before. Examples would be books about Java, Hibernate, Node.js, or Clojure.
  • Conceptual books are the books that give us the foundation to advance in our careers. They are the books where we get introduced to new concepts, paradigms, and practices. The knowledge we acquire through this type of book cannot always be applied immediately; it may take a significant amount of time to digest the information and become proficient. Quite often a technology or language may be used to explain some technical concepts but usually the knowledge we get can be applied broadly. Books covering topics like Test-Driven Development, Domain-Driven Design, object-oriented design, functional programming, or modeling different types of NoSQL databases, just to mention a few examples, would fit in this category. Learning new concepts, paradigms, and practices is far harder than learning a specific technology, and it may take years until we get comfortable with them. However, conceptual books are the books that give us the foundation to learn specific technologies much quicker.
  • Behavioral books are the books that make us more efficient when working in teams and better professionals in general. They help us learn how to deal with people, clients, deadlines, team members, and so on. Knowing some programming languages, frameworks, and practices is not enough if we want to be good professionals. We also need to learn how to deal with everything else that is not related to code but is also part of a software project or organization. Books in this category will cover the more human and professional side of software development, including topics like Agile methodologies, Software Craftsmanship, Lean software development, psychology, philosophy, and management.
  • Revolutionary books (some call them classics) are the ones that change the way we work or even some of our personal values. They propose a different set of values and principles, quite often initially rejected or ignored by the majority of professionals. Bit by bit, they end up making their way into the mainstream. They are books that every software developer is expected to have read and are constantly mentioned in technical conversations. Very rarely does a technology-specific book become a classic. Normally the revolutionary books are conceptual, behavioral, or a combination. Books in this category define or have a great influence on the direction and evolution of our industry. A few examples would be The Pragmatic Programmer, The Mythical Man-Month, Design Patterns (GoF), Test-Driven Development: By Example, Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change, The Clean Coder, Software Craftsmanship, and Refactoring. It may take many years to master the content in the books in this category.

Books give us a deeper understanding of a technology or subject. Favor conceptual and behavioral books for your career progression, starting with the revolutionary ones. Read technology-specific books for your short- and medium-term plans.

Reading itself also has a learning curve. There are many different ways to read books, and understanding them can make a big difference in how fast we can read them and how much we can learn. This topic is beyond the scope of this book but I recommend you research speed-reading techniques.

Blogs

Blogs are extremely popular and a great way to keep ourselves up to date. Quite a few very good developers I know and respect just read blogs. They have almost abandoned books. Blogs tend to fit well in the Software Craftsmanship and Agile models because they contain real experiences, personal findings, opinions, successes, and failures in short snippets. Reading blogs from more experienced professionals and subject matter experts is a good, quick, and free way for us to learn from many different great professionals at the same time. There are also great apps like Instapaper and Evernote, just to mention a few, that we can use to keep track of blogs.

Blogs can be dangerous for the uninformed though. The vast majority of blogs are written without much research or deep thought. Some blog posts are just a brain dump of half-baked ideas, rants, or random thoughts. Some developers use their blogs to keep track of their own professional progression. Some report their own experiences in real projects but that does not necessarily mean they were able to solve their problems well or even to identify their real problems. And that is OK. That is exactly why blogs are great. As long as we understand that we need to read blogs with a pinch of salt, they are fantastic.

But do not think that just experienced professionals should write blogs. All software developers should have their own blogs, regardless of how much experience they have. We should all share our experiences and findings and help to create a great community of professionals. Sometimes we may think that we are not good enough or do not have much to say. We may think that we don’t have an original idea and no one will read our blog anyway. First of all, we should treat our blog as a record of our own learning and progression—a history of our thoughts, ideas, and views of the world over our careers. We should not worry too much about what other people will think about it. We should first write it for ourselves. Even if developers more experienced than us have written about the subject many times before, it is worth writing whatever we are currently learning anyway. Every year there are thousands of new developers joining our industry and they will need to learn many of the things we are learning now. Maybe for them, our blogs will be very useful since we will be writing them from the perspective of a beginner. Do not worry about being judged by more senior developers because that is not going to happen. Whenever we Google for something and the first link we click leads to something we already know, we just jump to the next link. All developers should appreciate the effort that other developers make to write and share their views with the rest of the world, for free.

Technical Websites

Technical websites are also good in order to keep ourselves up to date with what’s going on in the market. There are many websites that work as a digital magazine, announcing new trends and techniques. Some of these websites have technical writers writing for them every day. Some of them just aggregate the best blogs or provide a big discussion forum.

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020