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Product Description
Product Description
Software development happens in your head. Not in an editor, IDE, or design tool. You're well educated on how to work with software and hardware, but what about wetware--our own brains? Learning new skills and new technology is critical to your career, and it's all in your head.
In this book by Andy Hunt, you'll learn how our brains are wired, and how to take advantage of your brain's architecture. You'll learn new tricks and tips to learn more, faster, and retain more of what you learn.
You need a pragmatic approach to thinking and learning. You need to Refactor Your Wetware.
Programmers have to learn constantly; not just the stereotypical new technologies, but also the problem domain of the application, the whims of the user community, the quirks of your teammates, the shifting sands of the industry, and the evolving characteristics of the project itself as it is built.
We'll journey together through bits of cognitive and neuroscience, learning and behavioral theory. You'll see some surprising aspects of how our brains work, and how you can take advantage of the system to improve your own learning and thinking skills.
In this book you'll learn how to:
About the Author
Andy Hunt is a programmer turned consultant, author and publisher. He co-authored the best-selling book "The Pragmatic Programmer," was one of the 17 founders of the Agile Alliance, and co-founded the Pragmatic Bookshelf, publishing award-winning and critically acclaimed books for software developers.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I had this book on my Wish List for a long time before I decided to buy it. Why? I figured that yet another book on mind mapping and other brain train techniques would not add an awful lot what I already knew. Boy was I wrong. Yes, brain training is a good part of this book but it offers far more than that. The Dreyfus model does not only help you to place yourself on your own journey to being an expert (if that is what you want) but it also provides invaluable insights into how to work with others, keeping their strengths and weaknesses in clear sight. Next, getting in the right 'brain mode' will help you to apply those brain train methods far more effectively than you'll have done until now. At least it did for me. Andy explains just how to tune your mind to the right frequency to pick up all those little nuggets of gold that would normally get lost in the static.
I could go on like this for a while, mentioning 'brain debugging', personal investment plans or how I actually started applying the deliberate learning techniques outlined in this book while reading it and came out with a far more ready recollection of its content, even weeks later. But in short, you should get this book. Personally I think it has been incorrectly categorized as being a computer science book. The information in this book will apply to you whether you are a computer scientist, work in sales or manage your local cooking club as a hobby.
I could go on like this for a while, mentioning 'brain debugging', personal investment plans or how I actually started applying the deliberate learning techniques outlined in this book while reading it and came out with a far more ready recollection of its content, even weeks later. But in short, you should get this book. Personally I think it has been incorrectly categorized as being a computer science book. The information in this book will apply to you whether you are a computer scientist, work in sales or manage your local cooking club as a hobby.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An easy read brimming with usefull methods and techniques that will help you increase your learning and retention pace whatever skill you wish to acquire/develop even if the primary audience is programmers. Amongst many insightful tips the author suggests to "Plan your investment in learning deliberately" I believe this book to be a very good first step in that direction.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is probably a good book on the practical philosophy of programming (and other jobs) for beginners.
But since I have been doing mind-mapping (for example) for more than 20 years and the other techniques were not new to me the book was mainly a reminder of what I *should* be doing.
So I'd recommend the book to new programmers (and not only) or to old programmers who have not changed their working methods in the last 20 years, but there were few surprises for me.
Some of the paragraphs were clunky and clumsy, as if hastily written.
(The author seems to have a great faith in the Myers Briggs personality test, but it is an awful and unscientific test. It seems to be used everywhere except in psychology and psychiatry. As the Skeptoid podcast points out, introversion-extroversion (for example) has a normal distribution and moreover changes with context. So splitting it into a binary (and final) introvert vs extrovert classification is total idiocy.)
But since I have been doing mind-mapping (for example) for more than 20 years and the other techniques were not new to me the book was mainly a reminder of what I *should* be doing.
So I'd recommend the book to new programmers (and not only) or to old programmers who have not changed their working methods in the last 20 years, but there were few surprises for me.
Some of the paragraphs were clunky and clumsy, as if hastily written.
(The author seems to have a great faith in the Myers Briggs personality test, but it is an awful and unscientific test. It seems to be used everywhere except in psychology and psychiatry. As the Skeptoid podcast points out, introversion-extroversion (for example) has a normal distribution and moreover changes with context. So splitting it into a binary (and final) introvert vs extrovert classification is total idiocy.)
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A good review of learning techniques
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Pragmatic Thinking and Learning. Having studied the Cognitive Sciences many years ago I was pleasantly surprised to see that the basic practices and... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Mr. Michael R. Mcdowell
Thought provoking
Although apparently wrirtten with software engineers in mind, this book is full of stimulating insights for the non-computer orientated. Read more
Published 15 months ago by B. Adams
A software engineer's perspective
Easy read with very interesting analogies; thought provoking ideas - the book arrived in time and in good condition.
Published on 24 May 2010 by Sina Jazayeri
Good introduction read
I have always been interested in how my brain works and have already read quite a lot about this topic, so I didn't really expect too much from this. Read more
Published on 1 May 2010 by Hoffmann Gd
A good book for a software developer.
As a software developer, or more in general as a knowledge worker, you know how difficult it is to keep up with new things that come up every day: new languages, paradigms,... Read more
Published on 9 April 2010 by Stefano Ricciardi
Not as revealing as expected
Don't know how to precisely tell this. Let's see: the book is by no means bad. It has a good collection of techniques that could potentially help to improve how effectively you... Read more
Published on 20 Mar 2010 by A. Garcia-patiño Barbolani
Interesting read
I have enjoyed reading this book, clearly written in a friendly style with plenty of good ideas on how to think differently, so you can work smarter and more effectively. Read more
Published on 15 Feb 2010 by Joe Dog
Inspiring, Informative and Fun to Read
I was recommended this by a programmer who loved it and as a project manager and former programmer, I loved it too. Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2010 by Sulkyblue
Definitely worth reading!
This is a wonderful book!
I would definitely recommend this book to all of you that are responsible for coaching others. Read more
I would definitely recommend this book to all of you that are responsible for coaching others. Read more
Published on 12 Aug 2009 by Mario Andre Araujo
Pragmatic Enlightenment
The pace of the delivery in this book is gentle and yet the informational bites are rich enough to provide new insights regularly to someone not previously familiar with the... Read more
Published on 5 Jun 2009 by Lloyd Moore
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