Book Review: The Software Craftsman: Professionalism, Pragmatism, Pride
08 Sep 2019Yes, of course. Who has time? Who has time? But then if we never take time, how can we have time? – Merovingian, Matrix Reloaded, 2003
If you think you don’t have time, even not to learn and practice, here is the one book you need to take time for:
The Software Craftsman: Professionalism, Pragmatism, Pride
I already had this book for nine months until I finally took the time to read it and I really enjoyed it! For me, it is about inspiration, motivation and passion.
I cannot summarize the book in an appropriate way - not such that you can get inspired as much as I got - instead I will cite some of my favorites which hopefully quicken your appetite to read the book yourself:
How it is done is as important as getting it done.
Professionalism, technical excellence, and customer satisfaction are the main focus of Software Craftsmanship.
First, building cars is totally different from building software. We do not use a car if it is not totally finished. We do not go back to the manufacturer after buying a car and ask them to add an extra door to it or to move the engine from the front to the back.
If we think that a piece of code we wrote some time in the past is still good enough today, it means we didn’t learn anything since.
Time should never be used as an excuse for not doing certain things. Ever. We all have time. In fact, we all have exactly the same amount of time. The difference is how we choose to spend our time.
Refactoring without pragmatism can be a dangerous practice. Being professional means to understand trade-offs. Although we want to make the whole system better, we may not need to.
Quality is not expensive. The lack of skills is what makes well-crafted software expensive.
Software craftsmen wake up in the morning to make things better and to change the world we live in. Being a software craftsman is far more than writing well-crafted code or being a software developer. It’s a lifestyle - a commitment to excellence.
Motivated?
So get yourself a copy of that book! Read it! Become a software craftsman and change the world!