Five fuzzy suggestions, when there's no single book condensing the best
truths on a topic:
1. Read a lot. In computer systems, go back at least as far as the
1960s. Be skeptical of what you read and hear, but file it away in your
brain.
2. Be especially skeptical of ideas targeted at dotcom brogrammer
branded certification cottage industry cultists. There is a lot of
enthusiasm, and some good ideas (some of the best ideas are actually
coming from elsewhere), but also make-believe, circle-self-flattering,
dotcom MBA/VC orientation, and pundit opportunism.
3. Be skeptical even of the Racket community. I think we are one of the
all-around best communities, and are well-intentioned, and thoughtful,
and reasonably humble. But we still have strengths and weaknesses, I
think we're a bit more incestuous or parochial than I suspect is
optimal, we don't know everything that anyone else knows, we don't know
things that no one yet knows.
4. At the same time you're being skeptical of everything, be humble and
open to ideas. I think smart people are always trying to maintain a
balance in this regard, since I suspect we all have biases that suggest
the need for conscious balancing. I wonder whether it's human nature
that we each will always be too skeptical of some things, and too
trusting of other things. (Personally, some of my biases have me loving
a vague derisive sense of the term "brogrammer", though that's bad of
me, and I should try to remember not to summarily reject any ideas from
that direction, and I should not be dismissive of people who initially
appear to fit an imagined stereotype of bad practices.)
5. Design and build lots of things, experiment a lot, think constantly
about the big and the small, and second-guess as much as you can without
being paralyzed into inaction.
This is an ongoing process of self-discipline -- not, I think, something
we can ever say we've achieved, like we've reached a certain level, and
then rest on our laurels. (Personally, I'm always making mistakes
relative to things I thought I already knew, and, at this rate, will
never ascend to some higher echelon of wisdom, but I think the attempt
at discipline is good.)
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