Memory gets triggered in the most unexpected ways. I maintain a fairly large library of printed and electronic books (most of them DRMed -the light cases socially, kindle and Adobe locked the rest unfortunately) on subjects that interest me. It is fairly evident that I will not read them all, but I always have a book (and sometimes a paper) to recommend to a friend that has a problem. It seems that I am not the only one that thinks that personal libraries are supposed to be full of unread books.

Anyway, I was listening to Podcast.__init__ Episode 95 and one of the guests mentioned Parsing Techniques – A Practical Guide by Grune, I think it was when they touched Earley parsers and how most books about parsing do not really touch on how the actual parser is built. Wait a minute I’ve got that PDF! And you can go to the author’s site and download it. And you know what? There is a second edition out. For > 100 euros for a DRMed PDF I may not buy it since parsing is definitely not my thing, but somebody else out there might need the second edition. Judging from my skimming of the first edition, this is close to the encyclopaedia of parsing. I will go through some pages tonight.

Just for a refresher.

I got You are a writer by Jeff Goins on a day it was given for free years ago. I got to read it over the weekend. I thought then, and I still do no now, that the book offers advice to people who write code too. Maybe because sometimes I believe that code is like a poem. So I will try to rehash advice I found useful here, since this seems to be one of the acceptable self-help books that have come my way.

While anyone can connect with anyone and put stuff out there, how does one gets noticed? By helping people. By relieving their pain. I’ve advocated answering one question per day on ServerFault (or StackOverflow, or whatever clicks to you), although I do not always practice this. I used to, though, years ago when mailing lists and newsgroups were the thing.

You need to build a platform. This blog is a platform. I post stuff here. Others do it with more success, for example John Sonmez who uses a variety of platforms (blog, YouTube channel, podcast, book) to publish his work (and he gives 90% of his work for free he said on Ruby Rogues). You make the platform and you establish a brand. Without a brand you are forgettable.

And you know what helps you not being forgotten? Networking does. Meaningful relationships do. Relationships that are mutual, matter to both parties and give you the opportunity to make friends and find mentors.

But nothing of the above makes any sense unless you are prepared to answer the following questions:

• Am I serious?
• Am I committed?
• Am I prepared to be challenged?

Please take the time to sincerely answer these questions. And while you are at it, understand that you probably are not the best coder in the world yet. But you can become one. There is room at the top here.

Like one of the main characters in The Phoenix Project said, mastery comes through practice. And here Goins argues that the best kind of practice is done publicly. Interestingly GiHub seems to be our public place of practice.

While you’re at it, learn to estimate. Underpromise and overdeliver. Especially when you are part of a team. Like Goins writes, you have a gift. Someone is willing to work with you.

Go on! Practice.