Borrow or purchase The Passionate Programmer by Chad Fowler.

Schedule

• Begin reading as soon as possible
• "Reading Group 1" will take place next Monday
• "Reading Group 2" will take place the following Monday
• "Author Conversation" will take place sometime after RG2

Reading Group 1

Preparation

Before RG1, you need to:

• Read Part I: Choosing Your Market
• Read Part II: Investing in Your Product
• Read Part III: Executing
• Write a blog reflection detailed below

Writing

On your class blog, write an article that explores one or more of the following questions:

• Was there a tip that rung true with your past experience in a field other than programming? How was it similar?
• Was there a tip that you disagreed with? How/why?
• Some of the tips seem obvious, but what was one that surprised you?
• Which tip would be the hardest for you to implement and why? What systems/support can you use to make it work?

Group Session

In our small-group sessions:

• Gather in your four-person groups
• 36 Minutes: For each person in your group
  • 7 Minutes: Read their entry
  • 2 Minutes: Add a comment
  • 3 Minutes: Evaluate the entry at http://eval.jumpstartlab.com
• 15 Minutes: Group Discusion (below)

Have a discussion in your small group reflecting on any of the following questions:

• Do you think there’s a difference between being a "coder", a "programmer", a "developer", and an "architect"? What kind of role is the author pushing you towards? What do you actually want to be?
• Endurance athletes are at their peak after age 30. What age range do you think is the peak performance for programmers? How do the author’s tips inform your thinking?
• Do you know another spoken language besides English? If not, why? If so, how does it affect/inform/degrade your English? How do you think this relates to programming languages?

Reading Group 2

Preparation

Before RG2, you need to:

• Read Part IV: Marketing…Not Just for Suits
• Read Part V: Maintaining Your Edge
• Write a blog reflection detailed below

Writing

On your class blog, write an article that explores one or more of the following questions:

• What’s the over-arching message of The Passionate Programmer?
• What lessons from the book can you apply to your work in our program?
• Soon you’ll be trying to evaluate companies and deciding if they’re the right fit for you. What are some aspects, tied to the book, that you’ll look for in their style and culture?
• What technique from the book have you meant to be doing, but aren’t doing regularly/effectively? Why not? Can you change?

Group Session

This week’s group session will be cut into two parts.

Part 1 - Reflection and Evaluation

In our small-group sessions:

• Gather in your four-person groups
• 36 Minutes: For each person in your group
  • 7 Minutes: Read their entry
  • 2 Minutes: Add a comment
  • 3 Minutes: Evaluate the entry at http://eval.jumpstartlab.com
• 15 Minutes: Group Discusion (below)

Have a discussion in your small group reflecting on any of the following questions:

• Many of you will, eventually, become the leaders of technical teams or companies. What tips from the book would you try to apply at an organizational level?
• What’s the one tip that will really stick with you, and why?
• What’s one that you wish you knew/followed five years ago? What would be different?

Part 2 - Author Conversation

We’ll have a video-Skype conversation with the author, Chad Fowler. Prepare any questions you’d like to ask. The date and time will be announced when confirmed.