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Soft Skills: The software developer's life manual 1st Edition
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Summary
Soft Skills: The software developer's life manual is a unique guide, offering techniques and practices for a more satisfying life as a professional software developer. In it, developer and life coach John Sonmez addresses a wide range of important "soft" topics, from career and productivity to personal finance and investing, and even fitness and relationships, all from a developer-centric viewpoint.
Forewords by Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob) and Scott Hanselman.
Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.
About the Book
For most software developers, coding is the fun part. The hard bits are dealing with clients, peers, and managers, staying productive, achieving financial security, keeping yourself in shape, and finding true love. This book is here to help.
Soft Skills: The software developer's life manual is a guide to a well-rounded, satisfying life as a technology professional. In it, developer and life coach John Sonmez offers advice to developers on important "soft" subjects like career and productivity, personal finance and investing, and even fitness and relationships. Arranged as a collection of 71 short chapters, this fun-to-read book invites you to dip in wherever you like. A Taking Action section at the end of each chapter shows you how to get quick results. Soft Skills will help make you a better programmer, a more valuable employee, and a happier, healthier person.
What's Inside
- Boost your career by building a personal brand
- John's secret ten-step process for learning quickly
- Fitness advice to turn your geekiness to your advantage
- Unique strategies for investment and early retirement
About the Author
John Sonmez is a developer, teacher, and life coach who helps technical professionals boost their careers and live a more fulfilled life.
Table of Contents
- Why this book is unlike any book you've ever read
SECTION 1: CAREER
- Getting started with a "BANG!": Don't do what everyone else does
- Thinking about the future: What are your goals?
- People skills: You need them more than you think
- Hacking the interview
- Employment options: Enumerate your choices
- What kind of software developer are you?
- Not all companies are equal
- Climbing the corporate ladder
- Being a professional
- Freedom: How to quit your job
- Freelancing: Going out on your own
- Creating your first product
- Do you want to start a startup?
- Working remotely survival strategies
- Fake it till you make it
- Resumes are BORING—Let's fix that
- Don't get religious about technology
SECTION 2: MARKETING YOURSELF
- Marketing basics for code monkeys
- Building a brand that gets you noticed
- Creating a wildly successful blog
- Your primary goal: Add value to others
- #UsingSocialNetworks
- Speaking, presenting, and training: Speak geek
- Writing books and articles that attract a following
- Don't be afraid to look like an idiot
SECTION 3: LEARNING
- Learning how to learn: How to teach yourself
- My 10-step process
- Steps 1-6: Do these once
- Steps 7-10: Repeat these
- Looking for mentors: Finding your Yoda
- Taking on an apprentice: Being Yoda
- Teaching: Learn you want? Teach you must.
- Do you need a degree or can you "wing it?"
- Finding gaps in your knowledge
SECTION 4: PRODUCTIVITY
- It all starts with focus
- My personal productivity plan
- Pomodoro Technique
- My quota system: How I get way more done than I should
- Holding yourself accountable
- Multitasking dos and don'ts
- Burnout: I've got the cure!
- How you're wasting your time
- The importance of having a routine
- Developing habits: Brushing your code
- Breaking things down: How to eat an elephant
- The value of hard work and why you keep avoiding it
- Any action is better than no action
SECTION 5: FINANCIAL
- What are you going to do with your paycheck?
- How to negotiate your salary
- Options: Where all the fun is
- Bits and bytes of real estate investing
- Do you really understand your retirement plan?
- The danger of debt: SSDs are expensive
- Bonus: How I retired at 33
SECTION 6: FITNESS
- Why you need to hack your health
- Setting your fitness criteria
- Thermodynamics, calories, and you
- Motivation: Getting your butt out of the chair
- How to gain muscle: Nerds can have bulging biceps
- How to get hash-table abs
- Starting RunningProgram.exe
- Standing desks and other hacks
- Tech gear for fitness: Geeking out
SECTION 7: SPIRIT
- How the mind influences the body
- Having the right mental attitude: Rebooting
- Building a positive self-image: Programming your brain
- Love and relationships: Computers can't hold your hand
- My personal success book list
- Facing failure head-on
- Parting words
- ISBN-101617292397
- ISBN-13978-1617292392
- Edition1st
- PublisherManning Publications
- Publication date
2015
January 6
- Language
EN
English
- Dimensions
7.0 x 1.0 x 9.0
inches
- Length
504
Pages
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From the Publisher
This title has been discontinued by the publisher.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
John Sonmez is the founder of Simple Programmer, where he tirelessly pursues his vision of transforming complex issues into simple solutions. John has published over 50 courses on topics such as iOS, Android, .NET, Java, and game development for the online developer training resource, Pluralsight. He also hosts the Get Up and CODE podcast, where he talks about fitness for programmers. John is a life coach for software developers, and helps software engineers, programmers and other technical professionals boost their careers and live a more fulfilled life.
Product details
- Publisher : Manning Publications; 1st edition (January 6, 2015)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 504 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1617292397
- ISBN-13 : 978-1617292392
- Item Weight : 1.8 pounds
- Dimensions : 7 x 1 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #514,095 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #515 in Software Development (Books)
- #2,177 in Business Motivation & Self-Improvement (Books)
- #9,140 in Personal Transformation Self-Help
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author

John Sonmez is a software developer and the author of two best-selling books, The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide and Soft Skills: The Software Developer's Life Manual.
He's also the founder of the Simple Programmer blog and YouTube channel, where he reaches 1.4 million software developers yearly with a central message:
Technical skills alone aren't enough for a successful career—or life.
By focusing on "soft skills" like the ability to communicate clearly and lead by example, the mental resilience to bounce back from failure and even an improved level of personal fitness, software developers can break through the "glass ceiling" and enjoy extraordinary success.
John learned these lessons himself the hard way—through trial and error over his 17+ year career as a developer—and he's candid about the fits and starts he struggled through during those early years.
John started his software development career at age 10, hacking C and C++ to create virtual worlds for his favorite MUDs.
When John landed a coveted six-figure Silicon Beach job at age 19, he thought his career was set.
In reality he was only set up for years of frustration and disappointment—from getting "laid off" from that cushy job after underwhelming his boss with his C++ skills, to a spectacular implosion during an intense onsite interview with Microsoft, to finally taking a job outside of programming just to pay the bills.
Eventually though John realized that there's a huge difference between knowing how to program and having all the skills to be a successful, professional software developer—and he set out to develop the technical, leadership and communication skills he lacked.
John went on to become a highly paid consultant in test automation and Agile methodology, and the 55 courses he published with the technical education powerhouse PluralSight makes him one of the most prolific online trainers in the field of software development.
John effectively retired at 32 and moved to San Diego.
Today he focuses his energy on helping other developers achieve the success they desire through the videos, books and courses in his Simple Programmer platform.
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So why did I buy it? I realized I had read a lot of professional software development books: on languages, coding style, design patterns, high level concepts, mindset, etc. But I had a blind spot: no books on software development social/soft skills. I searched for software development books on social skills and this one stuck out. There also doesn’t seem to be much competition (if you know of any other good ones, please let me know).
So against all my instincts telling me “this guy is not really an engineer. He’s a marketing bro. How could he know what he’s talking about? How could this book apply to my life?” I decided to purchase the book. My next thought was shock: “WHAT? The delivery time is TWO WEEKS? It’s not prime!?”
When the book finally arrived and I started reading it, it didn’t take me long to start making highlights, bookmarking sections, and writing notes. The book is good. He gives a lot of good advice in a wide variety of topics. The ones I found most useful were about career planning, networking, marketing, productivity, and mindset. He surprised me by offering advice I hadn’t heard before and can instantly put into practice. I would share them here, but he deserves the book sales.
When you have a book with such a wide variety of topics, it’s inevitable that many readers will already have a good understanding of a few of those topics. For me it was personal finance, fitness, and diet. I didn’t think his chapter on dating added value either.
His writing was simple and easy to understand, but not exactly spellbinding. He opens a lot of chapters with a single paragraph explaining why the subject is important and follows it by saying “now that I’ve convinced you this subject is important…” Most of the time, he didn’t. It felt cheesy. But his points are clear and he offers a lot of important questions to ask yourself.
This book covers a lot of subjects at a high level with examples you can put to use right away. I think most readers will be able to take away a few things that they can apply to their own lives that over time will make a significant difference. What more can you ask for from a book?
I also liked that buying the book gives you access to the PDF because you can then listen to the book using one of the many available PDF to Speech mobile apps. This means I can commute and exercise while learning! (one of his multitasking tips)
Well, now that I have finished the book, time to apply what I have learned! This book will be one that I refer back to over the years.
Top reviews from other countries
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R1FJJTZWM2PA6E/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1617292397
It sparked an interest in me, to see if that comment sheds another side of the coin regarding his soft skills book.
And because I cannot write on that particular negative comment, I will post my views about the book and that negative comment here.
I don't see his email as forcing us to downvote this comment.
As a developer, I am sort of attached with the word "if"
if (you disagree with Josh's low rating)
downvote and write personal comment //suggesting
else
//do whatever
Therefore, his email did not force us all subscribers to downvote this. Though, intentional or not, the mail ignited a more thorough discussion regarding the book.
About Josh's comment with the foreword, I could understand why he was disappointed with the foreword.
Perhaps when we read books related to sw development, we are accustomed to read forewords that proved certain algorithm is optimal, that the theorem is factual because that foreword writer has similar study, or that the foreword writer has written a design that the author had implemented in the book, etc.
However, this book is not a (brick and mortar) technical book. Therefore, we need to read this book (and the foreword) with different perspective or approach.
I believe the foreword in question is fit and proper to his book. It narrated how the situation (publication deadline is looming) and Bob (as a busy person) had tested the author's soft skills, and how the author succeeded in receiving Bob's thoughts of the book and author's chance implementation of the book's content.
I don't think Bob was coerced to write it. Although the foreword started as dark, it ended with a happier note that Bob had tested the contents of the book (see, it's somehow like a technical foreword indeed).
On finding books that are more reputable and concise on the 7 topics mentioned, I still prefer to read this book because it is specific to my needs as a software engineer. I just ordered my book from Amazon Japan last week of April 2017 and I find the book straightforward and easy to implement for me. It saved me from a lot of TMI not applicable in my situation.
It also helps to be a critical reader. There are some of the book that I don't agree. Not all in the book are trash, the book's content is not for everybody. But I can vouch majority of the book's content had helped me a lot.
Nevertheless, I rather move on and read a new applicable/interesting chapter rather than dismissing the whole book as unhelpful.
For me, I am thankful to find this book as it enriched me not just to be a better software engineer but a well-rounded person.
John starts by outlining the broad choices you have in terms of what type of career you can choose to have. Perhaps you’re happy working as an employee of a company, or contracting or freelancing, or maybe you have a burning desire to be an entrepreneur and want to make it as master of your own venture. The pros and cons of each of these career choices are explored in a refreshingly straight forward manner. Subsequent chapters go on to explore each of these in much more detail, which certainly gave me a good deal of food for thought about my own career journey.
Some really solid suggestions are presented around the idea of creating a brand for yourself. How to get yourself and your talents known to your peers and turn the tables of your career. No longer will you be the one searching for new jobs, new jobs will be searching for you instead. That’s a powerful position to find yourself in. Nothing discussed is beyond the reach of anyone with an ounce of dedication.
This is where the book ventured into unexpected territory. A great deal of time is spent discussing the options that a person has to make sound investments with the money earned from their software development career. Suggestions such as salary negotiations, Options trading, real estate investment, and planning your retirement. Life is much more than a pay-cheque.
The last sections are all about personal health, fitness, and relationships. A proposal to break the stereotype of the lone nerd living on pizza and caffeine by putting forth a set of very achievable things to break the cycle. Wrapping up with arguably the most important topic of all, relationships. As a happily married man who is relatively fit and healthy I skimmed over these sections a little but the general advice looked sound enough to me.
Normally it takes me a few weeks to read a book of this size, but in this case I flew through it in one week flat and I found every opportunity to read ‘just one more chapter’. A really good compelling read that I will be recommending to my fellow developer friends.







