John Z. Sonmez: Soft Skills. A book about how to arrange your life

This happens infrequently, but the book clearly follows its title - this is a very detailed guide for programmers. How to build a successful career? How to start your own business? How to learn effectively? And horror of horror, even how to find your soul mate.



Most honesty honesty author. Sonmenz advises only what he tried and "without cuts" talks about his results. Very good. For example, saying that he could “retire” at 33, explains in detail how this happened. He was able to live on the rental income of the property, which he bought for the purpose of investment. And he saved on it long and hard, leading a very modest life.

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And in the book there is almost no “water” - everything is short and to the point. This is its main drawback. Want more details - you need to read other books, the benefit of an entire chapter is devoted to the recommended literature. But as a motivator, she is beautiful. Personally, after her I started blogging completely differently.



Notes in the course of reading (my translation):



Career:

• Think of yourself as a business. What services can you offer? How to improve these services? How to keep and expand customer base.
• Set goals and break them into small, specific tasks. Make goals by day, week, month, quarter, year.
• You need to communicate with people. Even programmers are more likely to communicate with people than with programs.
• Respect other people's opinions. Reasoning is often inappropriate. All people are emotional.
• The best way to go through the interview is to find out about it before you. Write a blog, chat with developers, comment.
• Choose a specialization and develop it. Knowing a bit of everything is not productive.
• To be a professional is to take responsibility and be able to say no. For example, do not roll out the release on Friday.
• Working for yourself requires much more effort to maintain the same level of income.
• Fake it till you make it - imagine success in advance. This is a good way to start doing a difficult job.

Marketing:

• Blogging is the best way to make you more visible to your employer. Lead it regularly, highlighting interesting topics. Think of readers.
• The primary goal is to be valuable to others.
• Do not be afraid to look like an idiot - this is the price of publicity. This is the only way to take responsibility, to become better and achieve more.

Training:

• The most effective and fast learning - practice.
• Find yourself a teacher. The easiest way is to help him for free. Then the person will agree to spend his time on you.
• Teaching other people is great at helping you structure your thoughts.
• Find and eliminate gaps in your knowledge. It will be easier to master new technologies - they are built on the basis of others.
• 10 learning steps:
• Look at the whole area.
• Determine the scope of work.
• Determine the time of completion.
• Find the sources.
• Create a training plan.
• Select only the necessary.
• Learn enough to start using.
• Use, play, create small projects.
• Learn enough to make useful.
• Teach

Productivity:

• The most important thing in productivity is focus.
• Always write a plan. No goal - no result.
• Technique Pomodoro - 25 minutes running 5 minutes rest, after 4 intervals, rest 15 minutes.
• Make repetitive business routine.
• Set strict limits - for example, 5 pages of text per day.
• Without rest, there will be no productive work, rest.
• As a rule, it is best to take action, and then make adjustments. And not long to plan for a long time and in the end do not start

Finance:

• Most importantly - always spend less than you earn.
• Two types of investments - in stocks and real estate.
• Investments make a profit in the long term - from several years.
• Stocks and options are both interesting and not so difficult.
• With inflation, the loan is beneficial as the purchasing power of money falls.

Fitness:

• Being engaged is useful not only for the body - it improves creativity and productivity.
• The right amount of calories is easiest to calculate through the MBR.
• On the strength - from 1 to 6 repetitions in the approach. On a relief - from 8 to 12. On endurance - above 12.
• Cubes are made not in the gym, but in the kitchen.

Soul:

• Being an optimist helps a lot in life.
• We must learn to face face to face trouble.
• Love is a game. Not enough interest of one, it must be mutual. It is necessary to interest the partner and engage him in the game.

The part about relationships, especially with the opposite sex, reminded me of one extremely truthful article - a botanical guide . All to the point.