Please, read a book

The software development job market has been changing faster and faster. In the past, people would get excited about the release of a new programming language — something that used to take years to happen. Later on, at least in my experience, we’d get excited about new Linux releases, and then even more so about the various distributions that emerged, each with a different purpose, sparking joy in any dev whenever a new one popped up or their favorite got updated with improvements and new features. Then came the era of JavaScript frameworks and frontend tools in general, where something new was launched every week — until the dust settled with React, Vue, Angular, and a few others that, while not as popular, still have a loyal following. This is just a brief summary of how quickly things can change — new trends appear, the market gets messy, and eventually, it stabilizes.

The thing is, over time, this cycle has gotten shorter and shorter. Try staying off the internet (or at least away from software development communities) for just one month and see how much has changed. A lot.

I’ve been working full-time in a position that isn’t directly related to tech. It’s been almost three months now, and during this period, I haven’t had much time to study software — I even paused my college enrollment because the routine has been intense, and I decided to take a break. As a result, I became less active in the communities and networks where I used to consume tech-related content. Slowly, I started coming back into this world, and to my surprise, I felt like I had missed out on a ton of new things. It really felt like I was left behind.

I log into Hugging Face, and there are a thousand new AIs to mess around with. I check trending repositories on GitHub, and once again — thousands of new and different AI-related things being launched all the time. It’s a bit overwhelming. I got hit with FOMO, feeling desperate and hopeless about getting into the tech and software development job market — something I’ve been pursuing for the past two years (maybe even more?). I’ve focused heavily on web development. But now, AI writes better code. Entry-level, trainee, internship, or junior roles are scarce. And when a position does open, you have to compete with a thousand other applicants. Things are tough.

But as days passed, and I started recalling a bit of the past, I realized that this AI era is just another shift that’s hit the job market — and adapting to it is necessary if I still want to pursue this dream. Maybe it’s just another bubble about to burst, and companies will start hiring people again. I hope so. And I want to be ready when that time comes. One piece of advice I gave myself? Read books.

When I was on the verge of giving up on this path, I decided to buy Clean Code by Uncle Bob. It’s a fantastic book. A lot of people have mixed opinions about its content — but honestly, that’s irrelevant. I’m reading it and loving it. I’m certain it’ll be useful for me in the future. And I’m also sure that I wouldn’t be able to learn what’s in it from an AI or on my own without experience.

Experienced developers won’t recommend books to you. Influencers won’t either. They won’t help those who are just getting started. Forget and ignore any useless advice a senior dev might give you — because most of them have a deep disdain for people who are still learning. Why do I say this? Because I’m tired of seeing LinkedIn posts from so-called seniors saying things like “juniors using AI are just creating more work for the team” or “the new generation doesn’t know how to work,” or “AI already writes better code than juniors.” This kind of speech is even more common in forums like Reddit. The contempt is disgusting.

And, well, now that I’ve finished my rant, I want to leave a good piece of advice for anyone who’s also in the learning phase, like me: read books. Books are undeniably the best reference you can have. Sometimes they’re even better than your college curriculum, that expensive and useless bootcamp where you learned nothing, or that overpriced course made to exploit desperate folks trying to break into tech fast. Seriously, read a book. There is no better reference than a good book.

How do you choose a good book?

That’s the easiest part. You probably already know how to use Google. You also know how to use AI. Now go look up a topic, language, or framework you’re into and ask ChatGPT for some recommendations.

Here are my personal recommendations:

The C Programming Language (Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie)

This book was a huge help in strengthening my programming logic. It helped me understand memory management, pointers and arrays, algorithms, functions, input/output, and how a compiler works. Maybe C is a bit outdated (not sure if that’s the right word), and maybe you’ll never actually use it nowadays — unless you’re working with kernels, UNIX systems, graphical interfaces, or other low-level stuff. Still, it’s an excellent book to deepen your understanding of procedural programming. Many modern languages are based on C, so it’s definitely worth a read.

Clean Code (Robert C. Martin, aka Uncle Bob)

Now, diving into software engineering, methodologies, and (yes) cults — people love Uncle Bob — this book has really expanded my understanding of how to write clean, maintainable, and readable code. These might seem like basic concepts, but they’re not. How many times have you seen code with terrible variable names, awful sequencing, and unnecessary if statements? This book teaches best practices to clean up that mess. Uncle Bob uses Java as the base language, and the writing is smooth and easy to follow. It’s a great book to help you level up.

Final Thoughts

I’m not a super avid reader. I read at a turtle’s pace, and my heavy routine makes things harder. And let’s be honest — technical books like these take time to read and digest. They’re not meant to be easy reads — and if they are, you probably didn’t read them properly.

Anyway, the best piece of advice I can give anyone is this: READ A FUCKING BOOK. Whether you’re a logistics worker, a production operator, a maintenance worker, an electrician, or an engineer, programmer, whatever — go grab a book and read it. Books are, without question, the best references you can have in this AI-inflated world full of content from questionable sources.