• listened to Accidental Empires : How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date by Robert X. Cringely (1996)


• read Software Designer by Alice B. McGinty (2000) -- written for high schoolers picking a career; good for a laugh when you're already in the industry.
  
  Personality traits for software designers:
  
  
  
  • Logical thinking -- organizing your thoughts so that one thought leads straight to the next. (Be linear like your computer :-)
  
  
  • Paying attention to details
  
  
  • Complexity and patience -- react calmly to setbacks and difficult problems; deal with complexity and complications.
  
  
  • Writing skills -- for documentation (and persuasion)
  
  
  • Listening -- to get a complete picture of clients' needs
  
  
  • Teamwork (and compromise)
  
  
  • Lifelong learning -- being a student forever; love of learning
  
  
  • Combining areas of expertise
  
  


• read Web Sites That Work by Roger Black (1997) -- outdated, self-contradictory, print is NOT the Web. Redeeming item: a very early screenshot of Amazon.com on page 126.