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> There's a bunch of things a I disagree with in here. This is largely how I feel about things like Two Scoops of Django or Effective Python -- I disagree with
by Alex3917 5y ago
> There's a bunch of things a I disagree with in here.
This is largely how I feel about things like Two Scoops of Django or Effective Python -- I disagree with a lot of the specific advice, but I still learned a ton from them. That might just be the best you can hope for with this genre of writing.
> It's both concrete and high-level.
Thanks! I was trying to really push the idea of having it be almost a business book with code snippets. When I went through college, you could either study business or study software. But these days being good at both is kind of table stakes, so I really feel like technical books should reflect that. But there also isn't a lot of precedent here, so it was a struggle trying to figure out how to actually make it work. The closest pre-existing example is probably something like Clean Code, but the goal of that book (as well as Pragmatic Programmer) is very explicitly to make developers better at programming, rather than making your business more successful. Which is a subtle difference, but it actually leads to both the specific advice and the larger structure of the work being very different.
- travisjungroth 5y agoSame on Two Scoops. It was incredibly useful when I was a junior dev in my first job doing Django. So often it's like "there's five ways I can imagine doing this. What's one that at least doesn't totally suck?". It was nice having an opinionated guide for that. I thought I put it in the giant beginner Python/Django syllabus I made[0], but I guess not. Reading your guide more in depth, I really wish I could send it back in time to myself. A weekend going through this would have up-leveled me by a year. I don't know, maybe it would have just caused me more headache. The app I was working on was definitely following a lot of not best practices, and seeing even more might have just been too much! [0]https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/i9vuhr/i_wrote_a_syllabus_for_learning_python_and_django/ https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/i9vuhr/i_...
- hluska 5y ago> That might just be the best you can hope for with this genre of writing. I’m a sample of one so file this away appropriately but that’s the primary way I evaluate technical books. If I agree with everything, it means I’m not learning anything. When I don’t agree, I’m either wrong which rules because I get better. Or I’m correct but had to think more deeply to make sure. Either one is a profound win (for me). Once again, excellent work!
- kimsia 5y ago> Thanks! I was trying to really push the idea of having it be almost a business book with code snippets. When I went through college, you could either study business or study software. But these days being good at both is kind of table stakes 1. I will buy a business book with code snippets 2. I am biased abt 1, because I also agree with the premise that being good at both (or at least passable) is table stakes these days