Robert Read's How To Be A Programmer

This book summarizes so many things we need to know as a programmer, from a programmer 's perspective. Starting from the basic technical skills one must acquire, to managerial skills to manage a team of programmers. Emphases are put on the ethics of working as a programmer and as a member of the team. Inside this book you'll find tips on how to learn communication language among your peers, how to talk to non-engineers, and how to deal with difficult people. This book also shows us how to take a break when needed, and how to recognize when to go home, and how to communicate and negotiate with your boss, so that you won't end up working for 50 to 60 hours a week. This is a very good book, one that should be a mandatory for wannabe and professional programmers. If you happened to be a manager who supervises a hive of programmers, this book should provide you with useful insights into their minds and habits.


About the Author
Robert L. Read lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and two children. He is currently a Principal Engineer at Hire.com, where he has worked for four years. Prior to that he founded 4R Technology, which made a scanner-based image analysis quality control tool for the paper industry. Rob received a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 1995 in Computer Science related to database theory. In 1987 he received a BA in Computer Science from Rice University. He has been a paid programmer since the age of 16.