I was very pleased with Being Geek, the author – Michael Lopp – does a great job of taking us on a tour of the geek’s perspective on life and career. The idea behind the book is to reflect on your career, as it is now and what you want it to be, and its a great read for anyone starting on a software development career and even for long time developer who have already walked a big chunk of the road.

The reading was not exactly smooth for me, sometimes i had to stop and remember what the initial topic being talked about was to not loose track, but that might have been more fault of my reading method (bite-size bits at random moments) then the actual author’s. I did like the narrative and the way everything is explained with an example, either from his career or a moment of reflection on your own. This was also interesting because it was very easy to draw parallels from my career to the points described in the book. These moments were for me the best thing i took away from the book, moments to reflect on my own career, its path, current downfalls or surprises and past mistakes or wins.

The chapters on management were an excellent exercise to analyze my own profile in team meetings and think about what i can do better from an outside perspective. Also the various ideas on how to manage your day, ideas and how to make sure you are hitting all essential parts of a day, were very good to have as reference and even inspired some changes to my own strategies. The real fun part of it was actually Michael’s read on “The Geek”, how we think, how we operate and how our significant others should “handle us”. It was mind boggling to see myself so well described in some points and it made me feel good to be a geek.

If you are planning a Software Developer career or have already started one, check this book out, it will provide you at the very least with lots of topics to think about on the never ending drama of “leaving one job and starting a new gig”, when to leave, where to go and so forth. But much more you should be able to get a great perspective on other aspects of your career and a feel for a Manager’s position and how they work. Pick it up and check it out.

Title: Being Geek
By: Michael Lopp
Publisher: O’Reilly Media
Print: August 2010
Ebook: July 2010
Pages: 336
Print ISBN:978-0-596-15540-7 | ISBN 10: 0-596-15540-9
Ebook ISBN:978-1-4493-9403-5 | ISBN 10: 1-4493-9403-5

Buy it: On Amazon or On the Kindle or On O’Reilly