Date: 2009-04-05 14:51:36 Created: 2009-04-04 06:16:01
Pragmatic thinking and learning (Petal?) is a book written by the in some circles rather well-known Andy Hunt. He was one of the two authors of the book the Pragmatic programmer, and this book feels like a very natural progression. Where the Pragmatic programmer was a book of tips on how to become a better programmer, Pragmatic thinking and learning takes a broader view and aims to help programmers become better learners in general.
To put it briefly, the book goes through research and theories on how the brain works, how we learn and what we can do to improve our learning and thinking. Just like it sounds, it covers a lot of ground quite briefly, but it does so in a concise and productive manner, giving you a good amount of details and background and plenty of references if you want to pursue the topic deeper by yourself.
I finished the book in two evening sessions, and I've already come back and reviewed parts here and there to refresh my mind on ideas. The style is very pragmatic, the focus is on getting to things you can do yourself to improve your thinking and learning, so you never get bogged down in theories or other background information. In that way, too, it's a lot like the Pragmatic programmer, a long list of tips and ideas to try for yourself. use if they work for you and change or ignore if they don't.
I saw Andy speak on these topics in November of 2007 and enjoyed that talk a great deal. From that perspective, getting the book was like receiving a deluxe extended director's special edition cut transcript of the talk - a lot more of the same good things.