The Pragmatic Programmer

I actually bought this fine books years ago, but only just now have found time to read it.

Reading it was a pleasure and I can recommend most of the advices it provides. It seems very much in favor of agile techniques (eg. the topics "Tracer Bullets", "The Requirements Pit" and "Refactoring") even though it curiously it does not use the term. Agile methodologies like Scrum were available before 2000 when this book was written, but the "Agile menifesto" appeared in 2001, which might introduced the term?

Many of the tips in the book does not come as surprises at all, but tips like "Your Knowledge Portfolio", "The Power Of Plain Text" and "It's Just a View" are worth keeping in mind.

I am in two minds about the encouragment of code generators. They can be simple but also incredible powerful and it is not for everybody to wrestle with such beasts.

I definitely do not suggest that code generators should be avoided at all times but especially as an independent software developer and consultant I feel a great responsibility to enable the (employees of the) client to maintain and build on whatever I leave behind.