Book Review: Being Geek
Being Geek by Michael Lopp is an enjoyable and insightful read for anyone in the software industry, but especially for us developers. The book’s subtitle is “The Software Developer’s Career Handbook” which I thought was quite apt.
Michael Lopp is someone who has worked as both a software developer and a manager and so he gives a balanced perspective. As a software developer you’re going to need to deal with managers and so it’s good to gain a better understanding of their perspective. This book will help with that.
One of the things I appreciated was the focus on treating your job as a career, and thus thinking about it with a longer term trajectory. I found that helpful, since I know it’s easy to live in the moment and not think about the bigger picture. If you do want to progress in your career, you need to have a plan.
Overall, I would recommend the book. I found it to be a nice break from my usually reading which consists of much more technical material. If you’re interested, it’s worth checking out (the book’s website)[http://www.beinggeek.com] as well.
