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Apprenticeship Patterns: Guidance for the Aspiring Software Craftsman 1st Edition

4.4 out of 5 stars 20 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0596518387
ISBN-10: 0596518382
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 168 pages
  • Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (October 25, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0596518382
  • ISBN-13: 978-0596518387
  • Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 0.5 x 9.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #584,116 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

By Thomas Duff HALL OF FAMEVINE VOICE on May 16, 2010
Format: Paperback
Being successful in IT means forever being committed to continual learning. But are there better ways to approach that learning? Are there times you get stuck when trying to move beyond what you already know? Do you find yourself somewhat fearful of moving outside your current level of expertise because you'll end up feeling stupid? Dave Hoover and Adewale Oshineye have written what I consider to be an *excellent* book on learning patterns titled Apprenticeship Patterns: Guidance for the Aspiring Software Craftsman . Though you may think the "aspiring software craftsman" limits this to people starting out, you'd be wrong. There is so much wisdom here that I'll likely be referring back to it for years to come.

Contents:
Software Craftsmanship Manifesto
Introduction
Emptying The Cup
Walking The Long Road
Accurate Self-Assessment
Perpetual Learning
Construct Your Curriculum
Conclusion
Pattern List
A Call For Apprenticeship
A Retrospective On The First Year Of Obtiva's Apprenticeship Program
Online Resources
Bibliography
Index

The authors start by defining exactly what "software craftsmanship" entails. Among many of their thoughts, they define it as a community of practice that encompasses values such as a growth mindset, the need to adapt and change, being pragmatic instead of dogmatic, and the belief that we should share what we know instead of hoarding that knowledge. These values along with the others they talk about point strongly back to the individual's responsibility to control their own path and direction, and that's where the learning patterns come in.
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Format: Paperback
It's quite enjoyable to read through this book, especially for someone who got stuck at one point or another in their career and wanted a way out into a job that better fits their need. The book has excellent suggestions on networking with experts in the community, learning outside the box of one's job, and contributing back to the software community. The stories and examples are fun to read too. By the way, skimming through the book at first helps peak interest quite a bit before doing a cover to cover read.
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Format: Paperback
"Apprenticeship patterns" was not on my Reading List, but dropped in my stack of books my accident. I decided to read the first couple of pages to see if its any good, and ended up finishing the whole book in a short time. I enjoyed reading it, it gave words to practices I've been following.

Apprenticeship patterns are patterns on how to improve your development skills over your career and gradually become a software craftsman. In consists of a bunch of chapters containing patterns. I couldn't find too much logic in grouping the patterns in this way, so myself ignored the chapter titles and just read the patterns.

The patterns have been mined and cataloged over the past 4 years. A lot of them originated from Dave's career move to software development and therefore many patterns are clarified with personal stories from Dave. They start with trivial patterns as Your First Language which gives you a start as a developer and dives into the harder ones asking you to Expose Your Ignorance and Be The Worst so that you can still learn.

My favorite pattern in the book was The Long Road which is an interesting analogy to learning forever. As eternal learners we need to learn to walk the Long (and never ending Road), as apprenticeship learning to walk the Long Road is key to continuously sharpening your skills. At least, I'll continue my journey on the Long Road.

The book is small and its a quick read. Its easy to read it in parts as it consists of patterns of each one-two pages. I was considering a 5 star rating as it is one of these books I finished in a short time because it kept me reading. Though decided to go to 4 as the book does what it does, but (as some other reviewers point out) there are also a bunch of other good software development career books.
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Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
This is truly a great reference book for software craftsmanship.

Initially Dave gives the story about his experience of software craftsmanship. Then the definitions of software craftsmanship, being an apprentice, being a journeyman, being a master are given. Also apprenticeship and apprenticeship pattern are introduced. In following chapters, Dave and Ade use Context-Problem-Solution-Action pattern to address different situations we may encounter in our programming life. Every situation is a signal to improve ourselves and this book points "how-to" when we are stuck in these situations.

To be level up, we need to forget who we are first (emptying the cup). Then think about what we want and the long-term goal (walking the long road). Once the direction is chosen, just do it and don't be afraid of failures (accurate self-assessment). There is no really end of software craftsmanship, and all we could do is to get better and better in our whole life (perpetual learning, construct your curriculum).

In Chinese Kong-Fu, there are two categories. One is to train our skill, and the other is to train our mind. "Apprenticeship Patterns" is more like the latter category. Instead of hard skills, this book gives us some guidances in each stage of software craftsmanship on self-improvement.
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