Recently, I had the opportunity to read John Sonmez’s new book: Soft Skills: The Software Developer’s Life Manual. It is brilliantly written. As a technical author, I have a lot of respect for John creating this book. There is a lot of content in here and while most books I enjoy have source code, you won’t find source code in this book. Instead, you’ll find different topics that are crucial for people to know. Some bits, you may already know. Others, will surely inspire you to make some changes.

John is a workhorse. As a result, he was able to retire at 33. In fact, chapter 55 of this 71 chapter book is titled “Bonus: How I retired at 33”. It was a fantastic read. John explains topics like learning (9 chapters), productivity (13 chapters), and finances (7 chapters). He discusses real estate investment and stock options and the pomodoro technique and the cure for burnout.  He even talks about learning by teaching.

I can personally testify to the productivity and learning aspects. I’m still trying to figure out this whole investing thing, and I have quite a few years on John so I’ll continue to re-read the financial chapters several times.

I’ve recently started my own company, GlobalCove Technologies, and am just starting to try and build my personal brand in addition to my company brand. He talks about that as well in his marketing section (8 chapters). The book is filled with great advice. There are many things that I do that he talks about that have served me well. Yet, there are many things that he talks about that I haven’t done, but it is obvious that if I do, the outcome will be very favorable.

What’s the verdict on Soft Skills?

If any of the soft skills topics in this book interest you (and they really should), do yourself a favor and buy the book. Then READ the book. It is well worth the effort.

You should really pick it up. I can’t recommend Soft Skills: The Software Developer’s Life Manual enough!

John, thank you for taking the time to create this outstanding book that has great life information for software developers (and even non-techies).