Being Geek: The Software Developer's Career Handbook (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
Seriously underwhelming at best; offensive at worst.This is a collection of blog entries, loosely edited into a book. Emphasis on the "loosely." Lopp says that the goals of the book (it has goals?) are to improve the reader's improvisational skills (presumably as regards career curveballs) and to define one's career strategy. Those would have been great, and I picked up this book sort of hoping for exactly that. He delivers on neither, though -- those are pretty lofty goals for something written in dribs and drabs as unrelated blog entries. I would go so far as to say they're post-facto goals, ones that look nice on a dust jacket.The part that really grates, though, is how much this book is clearly not targeted at me. My gender doesn't align with that of the protagonist in 90% of the supposedly representative scenarios. Lopp has some lame disclaimer in the preface about how we should read "he" to mean "he or she," but dude, if you're being paid to turn a bunch of blog entries into a book, please do me the courtesy of making at least some of your examples gender-free, or alternating. At the very least, don't make it extra clear that I'm not even potentially the protagonist, because of references to shaving and badges hanging from belts. The chapter nominally for the geek's significant other takes the cake, however. "Your nerd" this; "his" that; all of which very accurately describe a very narrow type of anti-social, socially incompetent dude geek -- many of whom I've encountered and count among my friends, but WHO COLLECTIVELY ARE NOT THE FULL SET OF GEEKS. Argh. To say nothing of Lopp's random urging to get the geek's S.O. to urge him to treat exercise like a game, mentioning that the author himself once passed out in McDonald's after a workout for lack of calories. So many problems with this chapter.A few pearls, but this is basically just a set of descriptions of scenarios the author has been in, and no help generically. Let's just say that my career strategy was not defined by reading this book. Quite possibly the most disorganized book I have read. Author thinks it's cute to have short and meaningless headings that most cannot relate to. The author made some good points but I often find myself unable to scan through the pages quickly to locate back what I read previously. The editing seems abrupt. The author has good experiences to share but they're buried all over, delivered in tiny jabs. I expected more.
What do You think about Being Geek: The Software Developer's Career Handbook (2010)?
Good perspective of working in the SW Industry and insight to how those around you might be thinking
—rosie05
This was fun to read. The author explains a lot of the psychology of the geek.
—jason
Awesome book for you if you are a geek or if you live with one.
—Barbara
Enjoyable book. A good read for software developers.
—Tahlya
I wish I had read this book last year.
—parvizkhan
