The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development

When I first purchased this book, I was expecting something a little more philosophical. What I ended up with was a to-do list. The book is broken down into 5 parts, and each part has about 10 little sections, each covering something you can do to improve your career as a software developer. These little sections make the book an easy read and the author writes very well - the entire book is very concise and easy to follow.

Some of the topics seem quite obvious (get a blog going, work on open source, etc) but he also covers topics that you may not have considered. Some of the topics I found most interesting have to do with changing your outlook on daily tasks. An example is to view your 8 hours at work as "only 8 hours." What can be accomplished in this short amount of time?

I've already begun doing some of the tasks mentioned in the book and have noticed an improvement in my performance at work. There's quite a bit of advice to follow and it all sounds pretty solid. I hope to try and incorporate as much as I can in my daily routine and so far, so good.