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Digital Cameras - Camcorders - Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware (Pragmatic Programmers)
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List Price: $34.95
Our Price: $19.49
Your Save: $ 15.46 ( 44% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Pragmatic Bookshelf
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 153
EAN: 9781934356050
Format: Illustrated
ISBN: 1934356050
Label: Pragmatic Bookshelf
Manufacturer: Pragmatic Bookshelf
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 279
Publication Date: 2008-10-28
Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf
Studio: Pragmatic Bookshelf
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Just great
Comment: Andy Hunt is a great writer. By giving us understanding on how our brain is functionning, he is allowing us to use more of its potential. A must have to any knowledge worker in this age of information. Using the full potential of our main tool, I mean our brain, is the only way to keep up with this fast moving world where technologies appear and dies in matters of months.
Emmanuel
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Great Work on Learning How To Learn
Comment: It's my opinion that problem solving and the ability to rapidly learn new things are the two most important skills in our industry. Andy's book helps you boost your learning ability by walking you through some fundamental aspects of how one learns. He uses a lot of practical examples drawn from various studies on the psychology and background of learning, and does a great job of linking findings in domains such as nursing to our own IT domain.
It would be easy to dive so deeply into complex, dry topics like the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition, brain modes, etc., but Andy does a great job of keeping an appropriate level of writing. He also fills the book with small, practical tips to help out - simple things like keeping a notepad or PDA around all the time to capture fleeting ideas in order to flesh them out later.
I also love how he highlights things that don't work, like his example of "sheep dip" training where technologists are lined up and thrown through an intensive multi-day training course which has little or no direct applicability to their environment. The training, like the parasite-killing goop sheep are dipped in, quickly wears off and has to be re-applied.
The book's tone is clear, enjoyable, and concise. The book's content is invaluable and mind-changing. I highly recommend you grab a copy and read it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Pragmatic and Actionable Advice for being More Effective
Comment: A well written, entertaining, guide to tools and techniques to help you be a better engineer. While many of the examples are geared towards software developers, anyone who wants to learn how to use their time (and energy) more effectively will benefit from reading this book. This book is a great mix of background material to help you understand how you learn, resources to enable you to learn more, and techniques to help you practice right away. This book will be one I refer to often, and is a great companion to Getting Things Done, and Becoming a Technical Leader: An Organic Problem-Solving Approach.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Book, an Excellent Read
Comment: I am on my second read of Hunt's excellent "Pragmatic Thinking & Learning". This one of those books you keep close at hand, I will probably keep it right along side of my "active programming library".
I especially enjoyed the section on "Deliberate Learning". I personally tend to read books from beginning to end, and Hunt suggests more "active" engagement while reading, something I know I need to do, but Hunt actually solidifies what you should do.
That's not to say this is one of those "XX Steps To Being The Next Einstein" sort of books, it's a book of "suggested" guidelines & tips, and it's communicated in a engaging & personable manner.
I am actually going to use Hunt's suggestions I gleaned from Read #1 in Read #2 of this excellent book. Highly Recommended.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Thinking & Learning - Yes, Pragmatic - Maybe?
Comment: This book is an interesting read. It is not the common programmers book, I would say 95% of it will be clear to people out of the software industry.
There is some good abstraction about how our brain is built with some interesting observations. There are also some good insights about learning and expertise in general.
On the other hand this books gives little pragmatic advices. I cannot think of many practical things I now do better than before I read this book. Mmmm... Mind Maps are nice, but not a "big deal". Dreyfus model is insightful but not revolutionary.
I guess this book and its ideas are a bit premature. Maybe a second edition in 5 years from now, after a lot of feedback to Andy about these ideas, can be really pragmatic.
For now, I suggest to read this interesting and relatively unique book - but don't expect it to change your life.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Together we'll journey together through bits of cognitive and neuroscience, learning and behavioral theory. You'll discover some surprising aspects of how our brains work, and see how you can beat the system to improve your own learning and thinking skills. In this book you'll learn how to:
Use the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition to become more expert Leverage the architecture of the brain to strengthen different thinking modes Avoid common "known bugs" in your mind Learn more deliberately and more effectively Manage knowledge more efficiently Software development happens in your head. Not in an editor, IDE, or design tool. It's time to take a pragmatic approach to thinking and learning, and start to refactor-and redesign-your brain.
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