Level Up!
$29.99
Minimum price
$39.99
Suggested price

Level Up!

How to Become a Great Professional Software Developer

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.

About the Author

Steven Talcott Smith
Steven Talcott Smith

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.  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 Reno, Nevada and Bonifacio Global City, Philippines.

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
  • 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
  • Craft Quality
    • What is Quality?
    • The Craftsmanship Approach
    • Polish
    • Efficiency Impacts Quality
    • Quality Features
    • Producing Quality User Experiences
    • Quality Under the Covers
  • Maximize Productivity
    • What Makes a Developer Productive?
    • Habits of Highly Productive Developers
    • Avoiding Wasted Effort
    • Productivity Takeaways
  • Pursue Mastery
    • Work Where Developers Are Valued
    • Evaluate Yourself
    • Build a Technical Competency Map
    • Find Your Level
    • Move Up
    • Give Back
  • Be Professional
    • Be of Good Character
    • Create a Professional Impression
  • 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
  • Have Fun
    • Enjoy Your Work
    • Enjoy Your Life

The Leanpub 60 Day 100% Happiness Guarantee

Within 60 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.

Now, this is technically risky for us, since you'll have the book or course files either way. But we're so confident in our products and services, and in our authors and readers, that we're happy to offer a full money back guarantee for everything we sell.

You can only find out how good something is by trying it, and because of our 100% money back guarantee there's literally no risk to do so!

So, there's no reason not to click the Add to Cart button, is there?

See full terms...

80% Royalties. Earn $16 on a $20 book.

We pay 80% royalties. That's not a typo: you earn $16 on a $20 sale. If we sell 5000 non-refunded copies of your book or course for $20, you'll earn $80,000.

(Yes, some authors have already earned much more than that on Leanpub.)

In fact, authors have earnedover $13 millionwriting, publishing and selling on Leanpub.

Learn more about writing on Leanpub

Free Updates. DRM Free.

If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).

Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers) and EPUB (for phones, tablets and Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.

Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.

Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them

Write and Publish on Leanpub

You can use Leanpub to easily write, publish and sell in-progress and completed ebooks and online courses!

Leanpub is a powerful platform for serious authors, combining a simple, elegant writing and publishing workflow with a store focused on selling in-progress ebooks.

Leanpub is a magical typewriter for authors: just write in plain text, and to publish your ebook, just click a button. (Or, if you are producing your ebook your own way, you can even upload your own PDF and/or EPUB files and then publish with one click!) It really is that easy.

Learn more about writing on Leanpub