The Pragmatic Programmers has a spin-off called Pragmatic Life. It made me think about the books I have acquired that are more about life than about programming:
- The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. W. Covey
- Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware, by Andy Hunt
- Getting Things Done, by David Allen
I’m also thinking of ordering the The Passionate Programmer, by Chad Fowler, when it becomes available…
Some personal reflections on the above books:
The Seven Habits Highly Effective People
I’ve read the whole book once and begun studying the chapter about the first principle (Be Proactive) in more detail. These principles seem really hard to turn into habits, but it sounds good!
Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware
A smörgåsbord of things to do to make better use of your brains! I’ve read it but I cheated by not stopping to do the exercises when told to, so I’m about to read it more “deliberately” and do the exercises.
Getting Things Done
My wife bought us this book in Swedish (called Få det gjort! : svart bälte i vardagseffektivitet) but neither of us has started reading it yet. I expect it to be a great book, and I’m very pleased that my wife bought it without any hints from me. (I readily accept that it can be seen as a hint to me to get more things done!)
The Passionate Programmer
The previous incarnation of this book was called My Job Went to India: 52 Ways To Save Your Job and that didn’t appeal at all to me. Now it sounds really interesting but I will probably not have finished the books above when it is released, so I have no idea when I can get some quality time with this one.