The Pragmatic Programmers Interviewed

jpkunst writes "An interesting interview at the O'Reilly Network with Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas, authors of The Pragmatic Programmer, who recently started their own publishing company. Many topics are covered. Dave has this to say about outsourcing: 'To get job security, developers need to position themselves as highly effective business-value generators, working with the rest of the company to solve common goals. If you sit in your cube waiting for a spec to be thrown over the wall, then you may be in for a wait -- that spec might be in an envelope on its way to Bangalore'"

Re:fuck value-added

[smack.addict]

You get paid, don't you?

And I assume you would like to motivate them to continue paying you?

Or do you think you automatically should be paid for your glowing charm?

Highly effective business generators

[Timesprout]

Actually thats the role of the Company, thats what its there for, to be in business. Its up to the developers to fulfill the requirements of the specs. I'm not saying developers cant be more pro-active in pushing technology and solutions and helping to pitch for solutions but ultimately the budget and PHB's constain what is and is not possible. I work hard for my clients but I am under no illusion that I am a comodity and despite good working realtionships the rug can be pulled from under me at any time. As I tell most of my clients, if I do my job properly they wont need me after the project anyway.

POD==vaporware, free digital books==cool

[bcrowell]

It was interesting to see their response to this question:
A recent weblog entitled Why Do We Need Publishers? pointed out that print-on-demand (POD) makes small print runs more affordable and more profitable than cultivating a relationship with a professional publisher.

From the authors' response, it sounds like they actually have a fairly traditional publishing arrangement, where they print books in quantity, and distribute them through O'Reilly. The question is also kind of a non-sequitur, because they say "POD" and "small print runs" in the same breath -- POD was supposed to be a technology for printing copies for individual readers on demand. Printing short press runs isn't a new idea. The whole POD thing was one of those things that really got oversold in the 90's. The fact was that the technology and business aspects never really made sense.

What is really cool, and really makes sense, and is really practical technologically, is what they're doing by making their book free [rubycentral.com] in digital form but also available in print.