After reading "The Pragmatic Programmer" - 1

Few weeks ago, my friend showed me a book that he is reading, "The pragmatic programmar". I thought it was a book about what he is doing now. He is a software engineer. However, he told me I can read the first chapter because he thinks it can be a big help to me.

After reading it, I found that I really like it a lot. I have read it for 4 times and have had different thinking every time. I put the strategies into my life and my work. They really do work. I also find some people don't really have the same attitude and it makes me different from other people who are doing the same job like I am.

I want to share some of my thinking and how I make the philosophy in my life here.


The Cat Ate My Source Code

One of the cornerstones of the pragmatic philosophy is the idea of taking responsibility for yourself and your actions in terms of your career advancement, your project, and your day-to-day work. A Pragmatic Programmer takes charge of his or her own career, and isn't afraid to admit ignorance or error. It's not the most pleasant aspect of programming, to be sure, but it will happen—even on the best of projects. Despite thorough testing, good documentation, and solid automation, things go wrong. Deliveries are late. Unforeseen technical problems come up.

These things happen, and we try to deal with them as professionally as we can. This means being honest and direct. We can be proud of our abilities, but we must be honest about our shortcomings—our ignorance as well as our mistakes.


-- In my job, I can see different kind of studnets who are from different fmailies. The parents educate their kids in different ways. And it makes all the differences on their kids.

Students are lazy doing homework, and they forget things easily. I think one of the reason is that their parents do too much for them. When they forget what I asked them to do, they would said "My mom forgot to put it in my school bag, or My mom didn't remind me that." One of my student doesn't even know where his books are because his mom packs up his school bag "everyday". When I want them to hand in their homework, I see different reactions. When the kids are asked for homework, and they didn't do it. I can hear a lot of lame excuses like "We went out last night and got home too late to do homework." That really frustrates me.

So, the next paragraph is what I tell my students in the class. I talk about it with my adult students, too.

"Take Responsibility"

Responsibility is something you actively agree to. You make a commitment to ensure that something is done right, but you don't necessarily have direct control over every aspect of it. In addition to doing your own personal best, you must analyze the situation for risks that are beyond your control. You have the right not to take on a responsibility for an impossible situation, or one in which the risks are too great. You'll have to make the call based on your own ethics and judgment.

When you do accept the responsibility for an outcome, you should expect to be held accountable for it. When you make a mistake (as we all do) or an error in judgment, admit it honestly and try to offer options.

Don't blame someone or something else, or make up an excuse. Don't blame all the problems on a vendor, a programming language, management, or your coworkers. Any and all of these may play a role, but it is up to you to provide solutions, not excuses."

-- I think that is the most important attitude for people. You are the one who makes the decision for what you want to do. Once if you promise someone to do something, do it. You have the right not to take the job, but when you say yes, you need to put your best efforts on it.

When I first got divorced, I didn't know what I should do. I just simply want to leave the hell. I did blame my parents for not helping me with my life, even now. I did a lot of work to get a divorced. I know it won't be a easy life for me since people in Taiwan still can't accept women who are divorced. I know there is still a lot of things I have to do. Now, I am trying really hard to live my own life since I have just started it for about two years.

I don't make decisions for doing things easily, don't promise my daughter for the things I can't do, but when I say yes to her, I will make it. I want to educate my kids to have the same attitude. I ask them two or three times when I ask them to do things, and when they promise me for doing them, I ask 2 more times and have them repeat my requests. It means they really understand what I want them to do.

Make the promises serious, and make them know they need to take the responsibilities for what they say.

For my adults students, they always say that they don't have enough time to practice English or do the review. I just tell them, you are the one who pays the tuition. Since you pay for it, it means you want to come and learn English with us. You need to do your best to make your money and time worthy. So, I ask them not to skip classes easily, if they really have to be absent for class, they need to call me first. Otherwise, I won't tell them what I do for the class they don't come.

I know it makes me a serious person, but I believe it only does me good for doing things this way.