Re^2: Which non-Perl books made you a better (?:Perl )?Programmer?

[brian_d_foy]

I actually don't like that book that much. I think he falls for the fallacy of outstanding example. It worked for him (at a time when just about anything you a millionaire), so he must be right about everything.

My main problem with him, though, is that he gives techies the wrong-headed notion that they are better than everyone. Many programmers aren't artists or hackers. It's not fundamentally a noble profession. Most of the stuff programmers do is monkey work. No matter how cleverly we code, the documenting, testing, debugging, and maintaining isn't all that artistic. Not many people care about beautiful looking programs. Most of them care about getting work done.