Customer Reviews

Secrets of the Rock Star Programmers: Riding the IT Crest

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book doesn't have any code tricks. It is just a series of interviews with people who have been instrumental in the software and IT industry over the past twenty years with an emphasis on more recent contributors. It mainly goes over how they look at problems and how they solve problems, with a good mix between their approaches to hard and soft skills. If you are a student doing a paper on the history of computing I'd say it would probably give you a pretty good look at some of the personalities involved in computing on which it is difficult to find much written. For example, James Gosling is the father of the Java language, but it is difficult to find any information on his approach to technical problems and his personality in general. This book gives you that kind of insight on Gosling and on other specific personalities that are leaders in the IT field. The final chapter on Weird Al Yankovic is rather strange, since he has nothing to do with the IT field and his intro has his qualifications listed as "The Programmer's Rock Star". I'm not sure how true that is, but it is an amusing chapter.

It's not for everyone, but it is a rare source for this kind of information.

There are, roughly speaking, three worlds of programmers: the enterprise world, the startup world, and the academic world. As its ridiculous subtitle suggests, these interviews are with stars of the enterprise world, where Java and heavyweight IDEs dominate. If you don't use Spring and Eclipse, then most of the chapters will feel irrelevant to you. Personally, I'm a refugee from the Java world moving toward Ruby and Python (the languages that reign supreme in the startup world). The most pertinent interviews were with Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas, the founders of The Pragmatic Progammers. They do fine work; I'd much rather read just about any of their books than this one.

The overproduced design of this book is consistently annoying. Each interview is prefaced by a "Fact Sheet" about the rockstar programmer, with a baseball card-style breakdown of factoids. "Number of kids: Four." Uh, OK. Then the author places interjections throughout the chapter [and not just explanations on square brackets, though there are many of those] but also sidebars like: "Character attribute: Pragmatic, not excessive, optimizer." Ooookay. Why are you interrupting this interview to tell me that? It's as if the author expects me to go build a fantasy baseball team with these programmers. Then the book concludes with a totally superfluous interview with Weird Al Yankovic. Like the rest of the book, that interview doesn't know who its audience is: If you've never heard of Weird Al, it won't make you want to listen to him; and if you're already a fan, you won't learn anything new from it.

But the real problem with this book is the lack of depth. Interviewing programmers in depth without getting mired in too much technical trivia is a big challenge. Masterminds of Programming makes the opposite mistake, producing interviews that are tediously low-level. The one book of interviews with programmers that I'd recommend is Peter Seibel's outstanding Coders at Work. If you really want to know how smart programmers go about solving hard problems, that's the book to read.

I found this book a great read for a variety of reasons. I don't have an IT background but I enjoy reading about groundbreakers and top performers in any field -- hence my interest in the book. The author does a great job of getting at why these folks are RockStars and how they all think about programming and software. But it also does a great job of getting at the issues they face that we all share -- how do I keep up with the deluge of information in my field, how do I stay current with trends and changes in the industry, how do I maintain a work/life balance, etc? And for those with an IT background, there is some very technical information as well. And with the great interview with Weird Al at the end, there is something here for everyone. You'll find value in this book if you don't know COBOL from Ajax, are in CS 101, or are a 20 year industry veteran.

I got this book because I liked the idea very much. I gave it 3 stars because some of the questions and info he presents seemed to be irrelevant. For example, he has these general questions he asks all the programmers (in addition to the unique questions). Questions like, "how important is it to be aware of your own ignorance?", "how important is it to be thinking about how you're thinking?", just strike me as rhetoric and a bit "boring". Also on each programmer he has a profile page like name, degree, etc. he has some irrelevant things like "Birth Order"... Birth Order?? C'mon man. Also, it would be more interesting if he were to interview some more recognizable programmers (maybe Bjarne Stroustroup that created C++, or people that made some significant technology like Craig from craig's list or Sean Fanning from Napster or the guys at Google, or maybe even Bill Gates). Alot of the people he interviewed I just didn't recognize. Also, it seems he has a bias towards the java world. What was a bit irritating is that at the end of the book he interviews Weird Al Yankovic. Again, I just felt this was irrelevant information to the subject at hand. Overall, I'm not dissapointed I got this book.. I just guess I wasn't completely satisfied after reading it.

After reading the book, I'm not quite certain what qualifies a programmer as being of rock star quality, and I'm not sure why "secrets" was chosen to describe the contents of the book.

Perhaps 'an informal exploration of how some rather well-known programmers approach their craft' would have been a more appropriate title for this book, though I freely admit that it is far less catchy!

I did enjoy reading the interviews, and probably would have rated the book higher if the cover and title were less... sensationalist.

I am not a full time programmer but I am in charge of a programming team who must trust that I know what I'm talking about when I suggest different approaches and different technologies. Even though the only code that I can get working on my own in a number of languages is a 'Hello World' script, I must still be able to provide insight on the programming for our application. This is not easy when most of the books on programming are filled with code. In order to stay current, I try to get my hands on whatever accessible content there is. 'Dreaming in Code' by Scott Rosenberg wasn't bad. The author did the best he could to make the building of a PIM read like a John Grisham novel. But the focus was narrow and it took me longer than expected to get through. Not the case with 'Secrets of the Rock Star Programmer.' This book has 14 interviews with top programmers who discuss what they were thinking when they each decided to change the world. Thankfully there's no code. But it's clearly written by a programmer and for programmers. Much was over my head but I'd rather have more in-depth, detailed info than something that was made for the lowest common denominator. There's a pretty neat chart in the back that indexes the commonly asked questions with each subject and that makes it easier than a traditional index in finding sections that are relevant. Another cool feature is how the author points out the 'character attributes' of his subjects along with his own 'observations' in a sidebar at various points. My first read-through basically consisted of just reading these. The bottom line is that there aren't many books that I can read that provide a thorough overview of the programming world. I browse the computer shelves at the bookstore every week looking for something like this, usually to no avail. Im glad I picked this one up when it appeared. Im putting it on my shelf beside 'Designing Interactions' which does for interface design what 'Secrets of the Rockstar Programmers' does for programming.

"Secrets of the Rock Star Programmers: Riding the IT Crest" is a series of 13 (or 14) interviews with different people that are known in the programming community. The fourteenth is for "Weird Al Yankovic" which has nothing to do with programming, so I won't count it.

Even after reading the book, I'm not sure what criteria was used in determining who is a Rock Star Programmer. It seems to be some combination of successful software developer, entrepreneur, those with a fanbase, some specific skills and being in the right place at the right time (riding the crest.) Then there are the exceptions such as Herb Schildt who is a programming educator and author.

I would have enjoyed this more as a series of articles than as a book. I felt the chapters jumped around a lot and had different voices. Largely due to the dynamic in individual interviews. Some interviews flowed well and others had a number of disfluencies ("right", "okay", etc.)

The author was trying to tie everything together. He adds cross references, observations when interviewees say similar or contrasting things. There is a table in the back to direct you to which interviewees answered a given question.

Some themes in the book are knowledge of ignorance, the right thing vs the quick thing, a non-IT plan B, continual optimization of environment, outsourcing and personal/professional balance. Many of the interviewees gave their thoughts on their expertise which was nice. It left me wanting more though. I think that is because I would read a book on the topic to get the opinions.

First off, you'll have to forgive this book for the title. Using the term "Rock Star Programmers" is just a piece of techie humor that was probably used to sell the book. The problem is, any non-techie that sees you reading it will probably think you're an egotistical chic-geek.

Inside the cover, however, is a wealth of information from various programmers across the industry. What these folks have to say about the software industry's *past* is extremely relevant for budding programmers and the people that have to manage them (and understand them). The author asks each of his subjects what they see coming in the next cycle of technology, but those answers are always vague. It's the observation of the industry's past successes and failures that gives the real answers, and the author flushed that out pretty well.

I also think the author did a decent job getting a variety of people for his interviews. There are gurus, company guys, program managers, pure coders, etc. I don't know the exact coding languages or frameworks of 75% of the subjects, but it doesn't matter. Software is software and there are enough Microsoft, Java, C, and open source guys to avoid any support to the idea that any one technology is best. The book does a good job of not making the reader feel they need to do more research to understand the conversation.

And the last chapter of a "real" rock star was still a nice touch, regardless that some other reviewers that didn't get the humor.

Overall, I'd say this is a good book to read if you are trying to learn what the software industry is about or you've been charged with the tasks of managing the technical direction for your project or firm for the first time.

While I like the concept and the different ways these people attack problems, I do have a bit of an issue with the Java centric cast. I was hoping for some low level kernel hackers, or at least something a bit more relevant than high level programming.