"Listen to yourself, constantly improve and have a thirst for knowledge..." is pretty general advice. He explicitly says it's not specific to being a developer.

"Listen to yourself, constantly improve and have a thirst for knowledge..." is pretty general advice. He explicitly says it's not specific to being a developer. I don't think, "constantly try and better yourself" as an over-arching life motto is any way equivalent to "buying plushies at ThinkGeek." Side note, I'm pretty sure the author stole half of his various bullet-points from the DSM's diagnostic criteria for autistic spectrum disorder.