Soft Skills: The software developer's life manual - my perspective.

When I first got my hands on John Sonmez's book I wasn't quite sure if I was willing to start reading it right away. I was holding the book translated to my native language (Polish), and the title was like many other books on the topic of professional approach to software development. Directly translated it would be "Efficient programmer - work, earn money and gain skills." If this was what the book was actually about, it would just be one of many, even though I would still be interested. However, the English title is much more intriguing. Reading a lot of technical books on programming or other scientific stuff I was quite delighted to reach out for something related, yet much different.

I must say I am not a stereotype software developer, never really considered myself to be a shy person, I love giving presentations and talks, I like sports. But because these things are fairly natural to me, I thought it could be great to see another person's perspective on those soft skills. Especially if that author is one of the most respected tech speaker, writer, blogger and motivator. And he didn't disappoint me.

From the very first chapters (and there are many of those!) I noticed little things that I disagreed with. For example, I consider writing a daily report of what I did at work to be a waste of time, and I'd much prefer having some software tracking my technical progress. BUT, on the other hand, not only I agreed with most of the content, but I discovered many facts, tricks or approaches that I wouldn't think about myself. For example, I knew what is generally typical for bigger corporations, and how different are things that you are likely to see at startups. But I never envisioned those in a structured way. Little thing, but helps you understand what you'd like to do much faster.

I was also happy to see author's attitude towards owning a business. There are many books out there which are going to tell you "just do it! Running a startup is so simple and painless!". But if you ever ran a single project (not to mention a company) from start to finish you'd know that "motivation" is just bullshit. John Sonmez appears to be ready to tell you straight to the face that this is not going to be easy, but without demotivating you at all. Instead you get a bunch of advice on how to manage your time, which traps you should avoid and what you should focus on. I tend to be pretty cautious with listening to all "life how-to's"; after all, we often like something because we want it to be true, even if it is clearly not. But with this author it was much easier for me to believe him, as he successfully runs so many things on his own, and, paradoxically, because there were some things I disagreed with. (Am I the only one to get cauitious when I see a text where everything appears to be the way I like it?)

Some chapters appeared to be taken straight out of my story. I remember trying pomodoro out for the first time, and I felt exactly as it is described in the book. I also used to learn stuff the wrong way, by getting all the theory first, and then discovered my own system that works for me - and it is just like John's 10 steps! There are plenty of other stories that made me trust the author even more, because I experienced them on my own way before I read the book.

But let's not be too sweet. Like I mentioned before, I do not agree with everything in the book. I quite dislike the perspective of saving every penny for many years so that later you can live without... saving? It appears to be quite excessive, but the other way. (On the other hand, I am fully aware that without saving one will never gather much, and I loved many tips on finances!) Another thing is working overtime. I think I understand what it means to work hard for your goals, but working too much is costing you much more than you may gain. It is not only about your money, it's about your family, your body, your passion or motivation. And you may lose all of those if you fail to break when necessary. I also think we are animals, I don't really trust "scientific" research on motivation effects (as its conduct is often far from fair), and I believe we can't be sure if we actually have the free will (which is a story for another post.) But the author is not trying to convince me that everything in the book is the only right way - he's just the opposite and I like that a lot.

Through the chapters of this book I was on a sinusoid of agreeing and disagreeing wth John Sonmez on various topics. But if you are reading this and it makes you wonder if you should read the book, there is a simple reason why you must do it if you are a software developer: the author have been through things he is writing about. I am a younger person, hopefully just beginning my journey. I have my opinions on most (if not all) topics, and while some of those do come from my own experiences and skills, others are probably going to get clarified and matured. And even if after all of them are settled and I still disagree with John - it was definitely worth reading this book to get to know his perspective (now I know we disagree on some topics, at least!)

I am sure that some of the things that I read in the book will remain with me, and hopefully help me. It confirmed some of the things I knew and taught those that I had no idea about. It is informative, friendly, consequent but not aggressive, and I really do think this is a good software developer's life manual. Need to live my own life to be sure though!