It’s certainly true that there are many unqualified authors that the self-taught programmer has to look out for, but what about the textbooks we read at universities? I won’t argue for a second that tenured professors are the least bit unqualified to discuss the intricacies of algorithms and abstract data structures, but who writes the book on using real world implementations? Who is qualified to write the book on Java or SQL Server? I’d want to see someone who has been using the technology for several years or a good portion of the technology’s life if it’s relatively new. Unfortunately, I find this is rarely the case. Read more