Chad Fowler co-authored the book Programming Ruby 1.9: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide (Facets of Ruby) and is a huge advocate of Rails. The book is a practical guide to growing as a professional software developer and is broken down into many 2-5 page sections focusing on a specific concept related to accomplishing this goal.

Some general themes permeate the entire 200 page text. One in particular is to embrace the opportunities that exist in a world where many software development roles are being outsourced overseas. He outlines a number of ways to take advantage of this situation to position yourself in a way where you are more attractive to potential employers, even the ones doing the outsourcing.

He encourages a constant, methodical, evaluation of your skillset in order to target your research and development towards the technologies that will become desirable next. Stay ahead of the wave instead of being tossed around by it.

Each section ends with an "Act On It!" portion which provides actionable tasks that reinforce the concept you've just read. Many of these are good suggestions and are easily incorporated into your day to day activities.

Another concept is the idea that your career in software development, essentially yourself, should be treated as a product. A product which requires constant attention in both R&D and marketing. Staying stagnant too long and not expanding the tools in your chest is a recipe for opportunity passing you by. Marketing suggestions include blogging and contributing to open source projects.

If you've lost the passion for software development. This book may provide just enough insight and food for thought to encourage you to get back on the right track and return to the days where you typed away into the wee hours of the night, not because you were getting paid, but because you loved it.

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