Like most developers, I consume a lot of books, articles, blog posts, and videos, but most of them are on languages or frameworks or various topics like that. In “Soft Skills” by John Sonmez, he covers nothing like that, opting instead to focus on lesser known but arguably more important topics: how to manage one’s professional career and in some ways, one’s life, to find success. I’ll admit upfront that I admire John and the work he does. I had big blogging plans for quite a while now, but it wasn’t until I bought John’s course that I worked up the discipline to do it. For one, John is (or comes across as) an incredibly sincere guy. I simply never get the sense that anything he says or does is for show or part of some elaborate act he’s putting on. Two, part of what is impressive about John is the volume of output he achieves each week: blog posts, videos, podcasts, Pluralsight courses, it’s simply amazing. But what puts John over the top is his view that one should release 90%+ of your content for free.
I joked with someone at work that John’s book is the one I feel like I would write if I was as knowledgeable and successful as John. I’ve read a lot of the books he mentions and some of his advice comes from them (which is only natural), but they have his own unique take on them. Interpersonal skills, career management, productivity, exercise, real estate, he runs the gamut throughout the 71 chapters. Will every single one of them be meaningful to you? No, of course not, at least not at the present time. But a book like John’s is really meant to be used as a reference or jumping off point. The chapters are short and focused and they’re all a very quick read.
What were some chapters that stood out to me?
You’ll notice I didn’t list any particular chapters from sections 4, 6, and 7, but that’s not because I don’t think they’re valuable. For one, I’ve heard much of the financial advice before (as have most people) so it didn’t resonate with me on this reading, but that doesn’t make it bad advice; other developers in other situations that haven’t heard it may find it incredibly useful. Similarly with fitness I lost over 80 pounds a year or two back, I greatly respect that John has done similar. These chapters didn’t resonate with me because I’ve spent a lot of time focusing on them, but if you’re not exercising or treating your health seriously, I advise you to do so immediately. And in productivity, I think every chapter in there is worth being aware of. Personal productivity is not a matter of using someone else’s recipe, but there’s a lot of ideas and options in that section that hopefully everyone can take away some idea. John puts out so much content it’s hard to argue with those results so anyone wondering how they can do more should spend a lot of time pondering these ideas and reading the related resources.
Who would I recommend read John’s book? It’s worth a read for any professional developer, but I’d put those likely to benefit most into two groups:
When someone enters the workforce for the first time, they usually have a fair amount of academic training, but almost nothing on how to manage one’s career, how to be productive, and all the myriad things that go into being a professional. To them, I think John’s book establishes a lot of basics that one should know to get your career started properly.
After some number of years, a lot of developers hit a lull in their careers. Typically, such developers have worked hard and produced solid results, but there comes a point when the trajectory flattens out and the questioning begins: should I move into management? Should I learn X language? I’d like to work with technology A, but I never get selected for those projects - why not? Maybe company Y is hiring and will pay me more, but will I like it over there? And the hard thing is, most of the time managers can’t or won’t identify why the plateau has happened or what needs to occur to pull you out of it, sometimes because they’re afraid to give the necessary feedback and sometimes because they don’t know themselves. But it’s at this point you need to take a hard look at yourself, get feedback from people you trust, and break through the ceiling. That might mean marketing yourself outside the firm so your company appreciates your value. It might mean changing company’s or going freelance or getting new skills or simply taking one’s productivity from solid to exceptional. But whatever it is, John has it covered with some sound advice.
John wrote a blog post last week that basically talked about how he was unable to write a blog post since everything he’d ever wanted to say is now in a book. I definitely see how that can be true, but I expect that to not last long (not that it was even really true for that post) before John will be back out there, producing more great content for the community and helping people drive themselves forward.