Like Eating Your Vegetables, But Better

Good software engineers read. And not just technical blogs or books on coding, but on all manner of subjects. Politics, mathematics, philosophy, science, history, and theology have much to contribute to the work of professional software development. But even more important to cultivating a healthy creative mind is the reading of fiction.

Maybe it’s just me, but I feel that a rich diet of fiction has fallen out of favor in our culture, especially in contrast to the consumption of technical information. That’s unfortunate, for stories have a unique power to shape the mind. For me, classic science fiction in particular has inspired me to consider how technology can be of benefit to humanity, and warned me of ways it might be a danger. No O’Reilly book is going to tell you that.

While I’m on the topic, can I say how much it bothers me that we categorize books as “fiction” and “non-fiction”? Those are horrible labels. Novels and other stories can communicate truth in a myriad of ways, and it’s quite possible for non-fiction to be either mistaken or outright false. If you tell me “I only want to read things that are real, not fake” I will absolutely make fun of you. Consider yourself warned.