About the Book
This book delivers practical techniques, habits, attitudes, and perspectives developers can cultivate in order to consistently perform at their best as professional software developers. If you are a developer, this book will help you enjoy a long and rewarding career and avoid the grind and drudgery that so many developers encounter.
I promise if you follow the ideas in this book, you will:
- Enjoy your work more
- Be more productive
- Become a technical leader in your team or organization
- Gain respect from your colleages
- Get a promotion or find a better job
- Earn more by increasing your value to your employer
If that's not worth $39 to you, then you can hardly call yourself a professional developer.
If you don't find the content valuable, you can get always your money back!
There is no code in this book. We do not discuss technical matters. Non-developers who have an interest in the productivity of software developers or who are just curious about the discipline may also find the material of interest.
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Table of Contents
-
Introduction
- Audience
- How to Read Level Up!
- What is Software Development?
- Professional Software Development
- Craft vs Profession
- Logic and Beauty in Software Development
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Deliver Value
- Subjectivity of Value
- Connecting to the Value
- Setting a Value Alarm
- Automate Your Chores
- Software as both Asset and Liability
- Climb the Abstraction Ladder
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Craft Quality
- What is Quality?
- The Craftsmanship Approach
- Polish
- Efficiency Impacts Quality
- Quality Features
- Producing Quality User Experiences
- Quality Under the Covers
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Maximize Productivity
- What Makes a Developer Productive?
- Habits of Highly Productive Developers
- Avoiding Wasted Effort
- Productivity Takeaways
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Pursue Mastery
- Work Where Developers Are Valued
- Evaluate Yourself
- Build a Technical Competency Map
- Find Your Level
- Move Up
- Give Back
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Be Professional
- Be of Good Character
- Create a Professional Impression
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Pair Pragmatically
- What is Pair Programming?
- Why We Pair
- When to Pair
- Driving vs. Navigating
- Use Proper Sitting Posture
- Structuring Breaks
- Keep Each Other Accountable
- What to Do if Your Workplace Does Not Pair
- Debug Your Workplace
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Have Fun
- Enjoy Your Work
- Enjoy Your Life
About the Author
Steven Talcott Smith is a master software developer with over 25 years in the game. He is the founder of ÆLOGICA where he provides great software teams for clients around the world. He is the creator of AppExpress for Ruby on Rails and the author of ExpressTemplates. Mr. Smith started his professional career as a teenager answering the tech support help line at his local university. After he quickly moved on to Unix administration and software development, he never forgot the early experience of empathy for the "normal" people who use the technology we create and manage. Over the years Mr. Smith has worked in a variety of industries, from Manufacturing and Finance to Healthcare, Publishing, Travel, and Real Estate as an entrepreneur, employee and consultant.
Steven is a loving husband, father of two handsome boys as well as an enthusiastic world-traveller and outdoorsman. Steven resides in Lake Tahoe, U.S.A. and Global City, Philippines.