Resources

These are selected resources (books, courses, blogs, channels) I was using to be a better professional developer. The list is more internal but I hope someone will find it useful.
Last update: August, 2020.

Why developers and especially architects should read books, even not strictly technical?
To grow, of course. And it still can be a solid point “by authority” when taking an example from the book while discussing related idea with other developers, management or business.

Books

The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers – on being a professional developer, I enjoy reading it again and again!

Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams – insightful take on software teams and projects

Waltzing with Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects – managing risks in projects explained in a way it is a good read itself and still gives practical tools to handle risks in projects

Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship – how to write clean code, and why

Any “C#” book to understand the language and .NET fully, like C# 2008 (this is my first C# book and is old now but I liked how most of the important aspects of C# were touched there)

Head First Design Patterns: A Brain-Friendly Guide – authors of the book made an effort to make the topic of design patterns easy to understand and remember, with a positive result

Image covers from Amazon

Courses

–Pluralsight – format of visual presentations on Pluralsight uploads information to my brain with a strong dose of joy. It feels like a pair programming session. I really like the approach of “why”, and then “how”, but I know many developers prefer a more straightforward approach (going straight for code exercises). I can’t recommend my top 10 courses because I’d have to pick 30+ courses…

Podcasts

–DevTalk – general development podcast in the polish language (I recommend DevTalk Trio series as they are short, on topic and professional)

Blogs and sites

–NN Group – UX articles by the Nielsen Norman Group
–simpleprogrammer.com – how to make blogs, market yourself, learn a language quickly; how to be a successful developer; always honest, practical and helpful
–devstyle.pl – polish programming blog created by Maciej Aniserowicz; it is a mix of technical content (DI, tests) and general software development topics; whole community gathered around Maciej is friendly and helpful
–Healthy Software Developer – recently watching the videos of a vlog described by its author as “insights from my struggle to find healthier ways for people to develop software”; topics touch agile, communication, career etc.

It’s also nice to pay a visit to Coding Horror by Jeff Atwood, Scott Hanselman – blog, Troy Hunt – blog

Tools

-password managers, like KeePass or LastPassword
-compare tools, like Notepad++ with Comparer extension, and Database Comparer like SQLDBDiff
-files tools, like Total Commander
-Visual Studio Tools that may be less known: ReAttach (for VS 2015 and older), VS Color Output
-network tools, like Wireshark and Fiddler
-spelling tool, like grammarly.com