Episode 437 | Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas - The Pragmatic Programmer, 20th Anniversary Edition

Guest:

Andy Hunt

@PragmaticAndy

Dave Thomas

@pragdave

Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt talk with Dave Rael about creating a new edition of the timeless classic, The Pragmatic Programmer, after 20 years.

Dave Thomas is recognized internationally as an expert who develops high-quality software–accurate and highly flexible systems. He helped write the now-famous Agile Manifesto, and regularly speaks on new ways of producing software. He is the author of many books, including the best selling The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master. He's probably responsible for bringing Ruby to attention of Western developers with the book Programming Ruby and was one of the first adopters of Rails. He's a programmer, trainer, author, speaker, and publisher.

Andy Hunt is an author and publisher, avid musician, and sometimes woodworker. When not making noise or firewood he occasionally speaks at conferences. He has been active in the field of software development since before the @ sign. He co-authored The Pragmatic Programmer with Dave as well as seven other titles, was an author of the Agile Manifesto, and tweets random bits about code, life, and zen at @PragmaticAndy.

Chapters: 0:15 - Dave introduces the show and Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt4:46 - Writing software and writing books - revising vs rewriting8:13 - What you take away from reading The Pragmatic Programmer at different times and different career stages12:53 - Ego, blame, impostor syndrome, fixing problems, and the nature of what software should do17:53 - Emphases in the new edition, including personal responsibility23:34 - Whole humans solving problems with software27:16 - Getting feedback - both for informing moving forward and for reward32:53 - Using many different types of tools38:30 - The new edition's foreword41:05 - Using the Pragmatic Bookshelf toolchain as examples 47:25 - Providing opportunities via the Pragmatic Bookshelf52:49 - Getting the book and keeping up with the Pragmatic Programmer guys

Resources: The Pragmatic Programmer, 20th Anniversary Edition The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master - Andrew Hunt Andy's First Appearance on Developer On Fire Dave's First Appearance on Developer On Fire "All models are wrong, but some are useful" - George Box The Art of Enbugging - Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas Thomas the Tank Engine (a "Really Useful Engine") Dante Alighieri "The wand chooses the wizard, Mr. Potter: Snowball Programming Language Saron Yitbarek on Developer On Fire Ward Cunningham on Developer On Fire Johannes Gutenberg LaTeX Programming Elm: Build Safe, Sane, and Maintainable Front-End Applications - Jeremy Fairbank Jeremy Fairbank on Developer On Fire Mike Clark Pragmatic Project Automation: How to Build, Deploy, and Monitor Java Apps - Mike Clark