Why developer should read books ?
Watch this article :- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGlPqG8VP3s&t=7s
Everyone should read, this goes without saying. There is so much to be gained from reading books including (but not limited to) learning new things, ideas, information and plain simple entertainment.
Further more reading is a healthy alternative to watching television or staring at computer screen, People working in tech, including managers etc, spends most of their time sitting in front of the computers.
I even believe most of the above mentioned leave work only to come home and continue staring at their computer screen or interacting with their smart phone.
Traditionally knowledge workers invest a lot of time writing code, reading blogs and publishing tweet after an 8+ hour hour work day.
Reading has a lot of benefits and none of the following being new or revolutionary, rather the contrary.
These are the five benefits that you can acquire by reading books.
- Relaxation
Believe it or not, reading can be relaxing as well as captivating. Even more so than a block buster movie or a video game. It requires you to actively. participate and engage while still entertaining like watching a movie.
Plus it takes your mind off that constant feeling that you’re missing something when not checking your Facebook stream or twitter.
Your brain needs some time off from all the action taking place online.
2. Improve understanding / memory
Studies have shown that reading has strong positive affects on the brain. By staying mentally stimulated, you can prevent dementia and alzheimer’s disease. This is because, keeping your brain active prevents it from losing power.
The brain is a muscle and like other muscles in the body, exercise keeps it strong and healthy.
Similar to solving puzzels, reading books is a great way to exercise your brain and keep it healthy.
Every time you read a book, you have to remember the setting of the book, the character, their backgrounds, their history, their personalities, the sub-plots and so much more.
As your brain learns to remember all this, your memory become better. What’s more, with every new memory, you create new pathways and this strengthens the existing ones.
3. Better focus / Concentration
In our lifestyle, our attention is drawn in different directions each day as we try to multi-task through each day.
For example, you may find your self dividing your time between working on a task, chatting email, keeping an eye on Facebook and interacting with your colleagues.
All this multi-tasking can lead to high stress level and low productivity.
When you read a book, all your attention is focused on what you’re reading. Your eyes and thoughts are immersed in the details of the story. This improves your concentration and focus.
Read a book at least 20 minutes a day and you will be amazed at how much more focused you will be.
4. Learning
People in technology are required to keep learning constantly. Just like of the continuous changes in technology or the rapid development happening in JavaScript right now.
Your market value is partly determined by your knowledge on in demand technologies, frameworks and best practices. Nobody cares about what the state of the art was 12 months age, let alone 5 years.
Fact is reading books will enhance your learning experience technical books, on for example functional JavaScript will have a direct effect on your daily works as a developer.
But then any book will have an effect, maybe not as direct as with work related topics but nonetheless.
5. Reading and Writing
Obviously reading a lot will lead to improving your reading skills as your reading skill as your reading speed increases with time.
Also you will find yourself being able to digest information in less time. It is just like reading code.
The more experienced you are as a software engineer, the more code you will manage to read and the quicker you will be able to digest and understand what you are actually reading.
Another interesting aspect, and this is something i have often read and heard about, is that reading will improve your writing skills, this is beneficial when communicating with colleagues, writing documentation and even commit messages.
So these are the five benefits of reading books for developers or designer. Now i would love to hear the book recommendation from you guys let me know what kind of books you prefer to read.
Thanks.