While I find a lot of the author's ideas useful, there's quite a bit of emphasis on certification. I think certification of programmers tends to be a mistake in

While I find a lot of the author's ideas useful, there's quite a bit of emphasis on certification. I think certification of programmers tends to be a mistake in that I've never heard of a credential (CS degrees included) that actually serves as substantial evidence that a person can produce usable code on demand. I find the comparison of programming to writing[0] useful here: passing a grammar test is not evidence that someone can write articles, essays or novels. When hiring a writer, one should examine samples of that person's writing. [0]This is not my idea, but I can't find the original source to cite it.