Eric Sink recently commented on the book debate that’s started up.
Part of me agrees with Eric Sink. It is definitely in a developers best interest to have a deep understanding of what they are doing. But I’m also in the camp that thinks that software development has gotten so complex that I personally cannot afford to be a generalist. I need to be able to balance my family time, my work time and my education time. This means that I need to be a bit more focused on what I am learning. When it comes to something like building a Solid Core I will take the time and effort it requires to gain a deep understanding.
But WPF is not something that at this point I feel that I need to grok. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to play with it, and hopefully use it in a project. But for now my needs are going to be more a long the lines of “How do I use it to accomplish what I want” and based on what I’ve heard Unleashed is going to be a better fit for that need. In the future if/when I need to “grok” it I’ll look at my options at that point. Maybe the Petzold book will meet my needs. Maybe I’ll need to attend a course or maybe both.
So in the end I guess I’m just a fence sitter who sees a need for both types of books depending on the situation. I’m guess it’s a good thing that there are smart people out there writing both types of books.
