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"One of my pet peeves lately is software developers ..."

Is this correct English?

are you english teacher ? grow up!

"One" is singular. If we were talking about "Some of my pet peeves", that'd be plural and "are" would be used.

My bad. You'll have to cut me some slack as I'm a product of the Louisiana public education system. ;)

Ha! I voted this up just because i liked the title. Very funny, and true. You could do us a great service by doing 3 or 4 more articles drilling into very specific things you found that were different from the book.

Another note I'll add: "No. Writing a Book Does Not Make You An Expert."

And finally, what do we call these idiots who sound so good because they read so much? Boss! Ouch, but it is very often true.

Yep. The title of this post definetely hits home for me, in a painful way might I add. I was fresh out of college and all I knew was C++,Java,SQL and Linux dev tools. Problem was there were no serious JOBS in my area for this skillset, everything offered was for .Net. So I picked up a book on .NET,read it, and went on an interview for a positiion after adding it to my resume. The interviewer quizzed me on it, I folded, I didn't get the job and was out of work for a nearly a year when I got lucky and scored an internship for .NET. Everyone should always remember that 'HONESTY IS ALWAYS THE BEST POLICY'. Except for dealing with women j/k :-)

@All:

Thanks for all the comments. :)

@Topnotch:

Just curious but did you admit you'd just picked up a book and were looking for a place where you could get some experience? I wonder because I interview/hire a lot of developers and I mold my interview process based on what the interviewee tells me.

No, I didn't admit that most of what I knew came from a book at the time. I had convinced myself that I wouldn't receive an offer or get any experience If I went that route but I DEFINETELY KNOW BETTER NOW! It really was a painful lesson but it pays to be as honest as possible upfront.

Pretty obvious conclusion and no different than the "paper certification" title some IT people I have dealt with obviously were.

However, equally dangerous is the developer that doesn't read the core materials and relies heavily on snipping code found through web searches. With everything, you need to supplement book knowledge with practical experience and problem solving skills.

@hagrin:

Thanks for the feedback.

I agree with you that to rational, sane people my entry was absolutely a "Duh, no kidding" type of thing. I really wasn't trying to break new ground in modern thought about learning but spew my stunned amazement that there is a (hopefully) small segment of people who this idea is not painfully obvious.