Pragmatic Thinking and Learning

Pragmatic Thinking and Learning by Andy Hunt

This is another book from Andy Hunt and the Pragmatic series. I can’t emphasize enough how great these books are.

Where as in Pragmatic Programming they discussed patterns and practices to improve your developer skills this book takes a step back and is looks at how your brain works. It’s a very interesting concept and one I suggest developers think more about.

The book as the title implies covered two areas:

The first part goes over the thought process and after reading this book I gained so much insight into how my brain is wired. Andy does a great job of explain how a brain processes thoughts and stores memories in terms of metaphors of computers and technology.

The second part covered the many techniques for learning and helps walk you though examples of the pros and cons of each method. Again this was very insightful as I have never really thought much about how I learn and what processes are best for me.

Thanks to this book I now have a few different options for learning that I plan to try to find the one that works best for me to retain and use knowledge.

Go pick up a copy and sit down. It was such a fascinating book and I ended up reading it from cover to cover in only a few days. Once you get into it, if you are anything like me you will be so enthralled you won’t be able to put it down.