Spanxxx

Very practical viewpoint. Though, don't let it prevent you from wanting to learn more. The effect these kinds of books have sometimes is that it can get someone interested enough to dig deeper.

I'm a software developer and I have found that what separates a good developer from a bad developer is that a good developer never believes he's a good developer. He KNOWS there is always something else to learn, some better way to do what he wants to do, and there is always someone else who understands or knows more than he does. Not to mention that the whole foundation for your understanding of how to do what you do and how you think is likely to change in within the timeline of when you actually are a developer.

Take a person who was born in 1960 and became a software developer out of college. Say that person never evolved past what they learned in their first few years of employment. These people still exist today (not many of them still have jobs doing programming though) and I've worked with them. They can write some mean assembly language or mainframe code. However, 5 minutes into a discussion on object modeling, data normalization, web services, multi-threading, encapsulation, etc.. etc.. etc.. they are so glazed over you might as well be talking to the floor.

Of course, I can remember a time not so long ago (10 years) where I didn't know how to "copy" and "paste" or create a folder in a computer. I also remember my uncle describing Email to me and I actually remember thinking "how could he send paper through the phone line".

My point : intrigue leads to research which leads to knowledge.

__________________
I think that's what they mean by "nickels a day can feed a child." I thought, "How could food be so cheap over there?" It's not, they just eat nickels. - (supposedly) Peter Nguyen, internet hero