This is a book best read at a few key moments: when first beginning programming, when starting on a professional career, when you begin to consider yourself senior, and then reviewing the bullets every couple years after that. I’m not really sure where I fall if you were being a pragmatic programmer was scaled. What I do know is that over the years, I have come to believe and practice many of the things suggested in the book.

The book describes the importance of estimation. This is definitely something I’ve struggled with, especially when working with a waterfall SDLC. One of the ways to address this is to continuously refine the estimate as you complete work and discover new problems. Especially in my early career and often working as a 1-man team, I didn’t do this and suffered for it.

Another important overall point the book makes is about improving your crafts through learning and tooling. This is often something I ask about during interviews and a great positive indicator of the type of developer I enjoy working with.