My book: Are You Better Than Yesterday?

A few weeks ago I started writing a book that I call "Are You Better Than Yesterday?". When I started it had a different title, but after reading Chad Fowler’s blog post I realized that this would much better explain the intend I have with the book.

I got inspired after a talking with Jimmy Nilsson about the skills of the average developer nowadays when he stated that: "When only surrounded by super interested people you tend to forget how the real world really is". I have not yet experienced this problem, looking forward to it. So I am basically trying to get in trouble (the previous mentioned problems that is).

I want people to keep learning but for many developers there is only what Microsoft teaches them, this is (I believe) not a conscious choice, but more a cultural thing. When you come straight from school you don’t know what a good versus bad environment is, and truth be told, most places are satisfied with the delivery of mediocre work. I believe you have to be lucky to get in an environment that is really inspiring and is pushing their developers to become craftsman in the trade software development and think outside the box.

So why write this book if there is no hope? Well I never said there was no hope now did I? I hope that the way I work on improving myself each and everyday (Ok, I sometimes skip a day) can help some other developers in becoming better as well.

Now because I have no illusions about my own knowledge I won’t pretend that I am going to explain everything myself. Instead what I want to do is provide a proper introduction and the reasoning about why something is important (or not) and then point to a much better resource (or multiple resources) about the topic.

I really hope that I can inspire people to pick up other peoples books (and blogs and what not) and keep on learning.

Now work has only just begun, I hope to get it published, we’ll see how that goes, if it doesn’t then I’ll provide it for free on my blog or look for other options. (I like Pragmatic Programmers mentality towards unexperienced writers). In the meantime let me share the main index that I came up with so far (subject to mayor change):

Introduction
Software Craftsmanship
Expand Your Knowledge
Improve Your Skills: Communication
Improve Your Skills: Coding
Improve Your Skills: Design
The Process of Software Development
So What is Next
Principles, Patterns and Practices to Understand
Frameworks to Know
Afterword

Please let me know what you think about this? I don’t think there is another resource that explains the developer where to start their journey towards becoming a Master Software Craftsman in a similar way as I intend to do.