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Even though our group was already following many of the practices outlined in Ship It!, I believe the book paid for itself within the first day of purchase. When one considers the burn rate of a ty...
-Steve Mitchell

They have gathered together the â€˜best bitsâ€™ of various styles and methodologies they have been directly involved with, and combined them into a practical approach with the focus on delivering a pro...
-Mitch Wheat

With much code, all eyes are shallow
-Jared Richardson

(Jan 21)
The book I wrote last year is, for a short time, available as a free PDF download. Career 2.0 walks you through taking control of your future, instead of trusting to the random chance that comes from management and industry trends. Some of us have been fortunate enough to work with great managers in great organizations that cared about our futures. Others have worked in situations where we were considered replaceable cogs.

Are you a cog today? Do you want to break out of that mold? Career 2.0 walks you through the steps needed to ensure you work where you want to work, instead of where you have to work.

Here are a few links to nice reviews of the book, as well as a low resolution video of me giving an early version of the talk. It was recorded on my iPhone, so please forgive the quality and recording angle. :)

Career 2.0: Toastmasters

NFJS COSS 2008 1st Day Wrap Up

Career 2.0: Take control of Your Life

NFJS Keynote: Career 2.0 - From Grunt to Guru

And the video.

If you grab Career 2.0 and like the material, I'd suggest you also check out Chad Fowler's excellent book, The Passionate Programmer (2nd edition): Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development

If you're not happy in the situation you're in today, you've got two choices. You can sit tight and hope it gets better. Someday. Or you can start working today to change where you'll be tomorrow. And by the way, not choosing is the same as choice one.

Category: Books

(Feb 22)
Many of you have heard Andy Hunt's various talks over the last few years about improving the raw material of programming... that stuff in our heads. If you've heard my talks you've probably heard me mention topics like the Dreyfus learning model or mind mapping. Both of these topics come from Andy's talks and are covered in depth in this new book.

I was an early reviewer of the book and I think Andy's got another winner on his hands. The book talks about how our brains work and then covers practical topics for improving and tapping the potential we all have. Everyone I know who's heard Andy give one of the talks in the 'Wetware' series comes away with new ideas to try out.

Enough of a plug. I really like the book and the material. It's now in beta. I strongly encourage you to check this one out.

Refactor Your Wetware: Pragmatic Thinking and Learning

Category: Books

(Dec 24)
Release It! is now a Jolt finalist! Congratulations to Michael for an excellent book getting well-deserved accolades.

Release It!: Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software on the new Pragmatic site.

The Jolt finalists

Category: Books

(Nov 26)
6th Sense Analytics is running an advertising campaign with one of my favorite books. :)

When you sign up for a relevant trade magazine at Trade Pub, you'll get a shot at a free PDF copy of Ship It! Apparently it's a 'luck of the draw' shot. We're one of many promos running.

Some of the better known magazines involved at EWeek and CIO Insight, but there are many other titles available.

Enjoy and good luck!

By the way... a number of readers have gone to the 6th Sense Analytics web site looking for a promo to sign up for... it's not there. :) Visit Trade Pubs. I'm told your best bet is to hit the IT Software and Development category. Good luck!

Category: Books

(Nov 13)
I love the stuff that Technorati or Google Blog search can turn up... here's a review of Ship It! in Russian.

Ship It!

According to Google Translate, they liked it. :)

Category: Books