Secrets of the Rockstar Programmers

Today I got wind of a new book that makes me laugh, "Secrets of the Rockstar Programmers: Riding the IT Crest" by Ed Burns. This book has not been published yet but based on the clues I would guess it focuses on Java programmers. I thought "rock star programmers" only used Ruby On Rails.

I first came across this amusing term in a Computer World article, Rock star coders. Jeff Atwood also wrote about How Not To Become a Rockstar Programmer. I don't have anything against making the profession look sexier. I also don't mind celebrity programmers. Social networking has allowed some people to become minor celebrities online. I've observed this on YouTube were popular vloggers gain considerable e-fame. It serves as a powerful incentive and encourages collaboration because other users want to be associated with the popular users. I even think it is possible to challenge a technically superior platform or product by creating a developer community which offers greater opportunity for recognition. Merely creating the perception that Java or Ruby On Rails is what rockstar programmers code in may be enough to drive developers away from .NET. I've also observed that some open source projects are popular based on the community that surrounds it so there is an important social aspect to technology adoption.

The Computer World article was very interesting from a career perspective because it pointed out the benefits of having a web presence. Most developers probably don't have a professionally designed web site to market themselves, unless they are a consultant, author, or programming guru. Being a web developer I consider it essential to have an online portfolio where clients can find examples of my work. I used to be able to just point people to client sites but now I don't have many that are not back end sites for managing a database. I can't give anyone access to that.

I recently added an AJAX portfolio to my web site using all of the JSON stuff I've been working on with no real purpose in mind. Now that I have my site on a Windows Server that supports ASP.NET I have some incentive to create some demo web applications. I may need to use MySQL rather than SQL Server because I bought the value plan. But as far as my "web presence" goes that will probably get a big boost when I go on the YouCruise, a Carnival Cruise for YouTube vloggers. I'm really looking forward to that.