Team Geek Book Review

Team Geek: A Software Developer's Guide to Working Well with Others by Brian W. Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman, is a new book published in July 2012. It is written by two Engineers who are thought leaders within Google. They also heavily contributed and led the open source Subversion SVN) project. At the heart of the book is a central theme: Humility, Respect, and Trust (HRT).

The book focuses on the social aspect of software development, team culture, and personal interactions. Although it surrounds a technical field, the book does not dive into any technical jargon. There is no elaboration on the merits of elegant design patterns or database bottle neck optimizations. Through simple stories and anecdotes, the authors mentor the reader through the obstacles of the IT office place. From hairy pointed bosses, to the perfectionist, to the ego maniac, the authors have encountered a variety of situations and offer the reader practical advice. 

Pragmatic Thinking: Novice vs Expert

Recently I started reading Andy Hunt's fine book "Pragmatic Thinking And Learning." Hunt is notorious for writing books which offer practical, insightful advice in which developers can apply to their work on a daily basis.  His most famous book is "The Pragmatic Programmer", widely considered one of the top agile programmer books of all time. Even after reading the book 7 years ago, I still refer to it a few times a month. My colleagues and I bring up the "broken window" theory, or often throw out the phrase "Don't Assume, Prove it," sometimes to the chagrin of the unfamiliar. :)

My Comprehensive Reading List

Recently I decided to track all the books I have read since I graduated college and compile them into one comprehensive list.  What I discovered was that I have read many technical books and that my interests lie in a few discrete other areas.  All the books I have read contribute to my career path and my personal life in some way, and I try to apply anything I learned from reading.  I am interested to see what has influenced you as a developer as well as a person.

I welcome any recommendations, suggestions, thoughts, or criticisms related to these readings.  I am particularly interested in the category I labeled as "Social Science", as I think the themes in those books correlate with the software workplace in many ways, but with a different perspective.  On the same note, I am always looking for the inspiring novel or story to sharpen up the emotional side of my brain.

Technical

• The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master, by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas
• Ship It!: A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects, by Jared Richardson, Will Gwaltney, Jr
• Domain Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software, by Eric Evans 
• Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship, by Robert C. Martin
• Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (Hardcover), by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John M. Vlissides
• Head First Design Patterns, by Eric T Freeman, Elisabeth Robson, Bert Bates, Kathy Sierra
• Applying UML and Patterns: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design and the Unified Process, by Craig Larman
• Agile and Iterative Development: A Manager's Guide, by Craig Larman
• Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, by Martin Fowler, Kent Beck, John Brant, and William Opdyke
• Seam Framework: Experience the Evolution of Java EE, by Michael Juntao Yuan, Jacob Orshalick, Thomas Heute
• Maven: A Developer's Notebook, by Vincent Massol and Timothy M. O'Brien
• JBoss RichFaces 3.3, by Demetrio Filocamo
• Getting Started with Grails, by Jason Rudolph
• Grails in Action, by Glen Smith and Peter Ledbrook
•  Driving Technical Change, by Terrance Ryan
• The Agile Samurai, by Jonathan Rasmusson
• Getting Real, by 37Signals
• Programming in Groovy, by Venkat Subramaniam
• Building and Testing with Gradle, by Tim Berglund and Matthew McCullough  
• Practices of an Agile Developer, by Venkat Subramaniam and Andy Hunt
• Manage It, by Johanna Rothman 
• Joel on Software, by Joel Spolsky
• Theory of Relativity, an intuitive explanation, by Jeffrey Bennet   

Social Sciences

• Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science, by Charles Wheelan
• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell
• Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell
• Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell
• Kluge: The Haphazard Evolution of the Human Mind, by Gary Marcus 
• First Things First, by Stephen R. Covey, A. Roger Merrill, Rebecca R. Merrill 
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey
• Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
• The World is Flat: a Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, by Thomas L. Friedman
• Ethics for Everyone, by Arthur Dobrin
• The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, by Jonathan Haidt 
• Shalom in the Home: Smart Advice for a Peaceful Life, by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach  
• The Principle of the Path: Smart Advice for a Peaceful Life, by Andy Stanley
•  Under the Banner of Heaven, by John Krakauer
• The Big Short, by Michael Lewis
• God the failed Hypothesis, by Victor Stenger
• God is not Great, by Christopher Hitchens 
• Discover your Inner Economist, by Tyler Cowen 
• Liar's Poker, by Michael Lewis 
• The End of Faith, by Sam Harris 
• Moneyball, by Michael Lewis  
• Freedom At Midnight, by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre  
•  Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg
• It Starts With Food, Dallas and Melissa Hartwig 
• Free Lunch, David Johnston 
• Predictable Irrational, Dan Arielly 
• Bonobo and the Atheist, Frans De Waal 

 Biographies

• Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
• The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope, by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
• Gandhi An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth, by Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi
• The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., by Martin Luther King Jr. and Clayborne Carson
• Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy, by Jules Tygiel
• Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir, by John McCain and Mark Salter
• Hang Time: Days And Dreams With Michael Jordan, by Bob Greene
• Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made, by David Halberstam 
• It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life, by Lance Armstrong 
• Crazy Horse and Custer, by Stephen Ambrose
• The Color of Water, by James McBride
• Lessons From a Third Grade Dropout, by Rick Rigsby
• The 5 Love Languages, by Gary Chapman
• Unbroken, by Lauren Hildenbrand

Novels

• A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini
• And the Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini
• For One More Day, by Mitch Albom 
• The Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom 
• Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse
• The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown
• Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson, by Mitch Albom
• The Twentieth Wife, by Indu Sundaresan 
• On the Road, by Jack Kerouac
• Fever Pitch, by Nick Hornby
• The Alchemist, by Paolo Coehlo 
• The Girl Who Played With Fire, by Stieg Larsson 
• The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson
• The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
• The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
• Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins  
• Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins
• The Lucky One, by Nicholas Sparks
•  True North, by Jim Harrison

Parenting

• How to Really Love Your Child, by D. Ross Campbell 
• Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents, by Christine Carter
• 1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12, by Thomas W. Phelan
• Toddler 411: Clear Answers & Smart Advice for Your Toddler, by Denise Fields and Ari Brown
• Fatherhood, by Bill Cosby and Alvin F. Poussaint
• Bavy 411, by Dr. Ari Brown