There is a lot of great skills you get from school/university lectures, no doubt. But on the other hand, for some specific and practical "super powers" you want to acquire or enhance, you have no other choice but teach yourself. The potential reasons are legion. That could happen by mere interest or if you want to deepen your knowledge in one of your subjects. Or maybe for the sake of personal projects, say learning some essential life skill  they dont teach you in class. So yes, when college doesn't prepare you for life battles, you have to coach yourself.

Anyway, I am not here to complain about any education system. I am writing this post because I would like to share the best and most useful books I went through, as I have been reading a lot lately. I read on a variety of fields and for each of them I am suggesting the top books (according to my humble opinion).

Here we go:

Productivity and Organisation

Being productive implies being effective, deliver what you promise, go from talk to action : in short, being real.  It's not always straightforward to be so concrete. It takes some will power and some organisation. It's a vital skill to have so that your dreams don't remain just dreams. So that your dreams come true:

Getting Things Done (by David Allen): Probably the best book on organisation. It teaches you how to free your mind, how to manage all your "stuff" and how to make efficient choices about your projects.

How to Make a Complete Map of Every Thought You Think (by Lion kimbro): As the title suggests, this book is about how to make a complete map of everything you think for as long as you like. If you do the things described in this book, Your thoughts will be clearer to you than they have ever been before. You will see things you have never seen before. It may feel like, for the first time in your life, you really have a clear idea of what kind of thoughts are going through your head.

Marketing and Business

Learning about marketing is important, even for software developers. Actually it's important no matter what you want to do in life, whether you want to run a business or work for an existing company. It helps you understand people and deal with them.

Foundations of Marketing (By Jobber and Fahy): That book would be a great way to start off, assuming you don't know anything about marketing. It's easy to understand and it teaches the basic concepts through concrete examples.

Influence : The Psychology of Persuasion (by Robert Cialdini) : This book discusses the weapons of influence from a psychological point of view. Among other things, it explains the main factors that cause one person to say yes to another person, as well as real life examples.

Breakthrough Advertising (by Eugene Schwartz) : Basically about copywriting (or how to sell with a few written words). What makes this one excellent is, it teaches how to identify the desires of the customers and write headlines and ads that trigger a reaction, as they present solutions to their needs.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich (by Ramit Sethi) : Not just another boring finance book. Not only is this book informative, it is fun and includes practical tips that would help you master your finances and possibly make more money.

User eXperience

UX is basically the way users feel about your product or service. It highlights valuable aspects of human-computer interaction. Whatever you build, UX is not a choice. This stuff matters, it affects the success (or failure) of your product. Bad design and bad experience happen.

Mobile Interaction Design (by Matt Jones): this book reveals how mobiles have the potential to be key building blocks in this new digitally augmented world, and how careful innovations in that field could change the world, bringing pleasure and helping businesses.

Press On (by Harold Thimbleby) : Provides many ways of thinking clearly about the design of interactive devices and about interaction programming. The emphasis throughout is on making better interfaces.

Digital Arts

Simply put, digital arts are computer-aided artistic works. For this selection, I focus on visual arts.

How To Cheat In Photoshop (by Steve Caplin) : A goldmine of practical and useful tips, tricks and step-by-step walkthroughs introducing you to the art of creating photo-realistic montages.

Digital Character Painting Using Photoshop (by Don Seegmiller) : a complete book on digital illustration and painting. It covers such theoritical topics as how to get ideas and how to get them out so that others may see them. Then it deals with artistic fundamentals that will help you take your ideas to the next step, drawing and painting. Finally it provides a series of tutorials that show how to handle different issues when you draw and paint.

Online Games

Yes, as a virtual worlds enthusiast, I had to come up with that selection too :)

Networking and Online Games : Understanding and Engineering Multiplayer Internet Games / Multiplayer Game Programming : those 2 books would teach you the history of online gaming as well as the basic concepts and some technical aspects to be considered.

Developing online games, an insider's guide (by Mulligan and Patrovsky) : This one provides insight into designing, developing and managing online games. This is where you learn from the top two online game developers through the real-world successes and mistakes not known to others. There are Case studies from 10+ industry leaders.

Designing Virtual Worlds (by Richard Bartle) : while the previous book discusses broadly online games development, this one focus on virtual worlds. This is a book for people who design virtual worlds. Because of this, it's also a book for people who implement, operate, study, or play virtual worlds. Because of this, it's also a book for people interested in entertainment, education, creativity, art, society, culture, philosophy, space, architecture, psychology, identity, language, economics, government, theology, drama, literature, or cognition. Virtual worlds are of the future. If you want to create or understand that future, this is the book for you.

C# Web Programming

We are getting very specific here. There are a lot of technology/programming books out there, buy I am going to focus here on what I know best : C#.NET 3.5 Web development.

ASP.NET 3.5 For Dummies (by Ken Cox): if you want to start off quickly and just begin to create your own websites/web apps within days, this is the book to pick. For an immediate immersion in ASP.NET and the Visual Web Developer environment.

Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform (by Andrew Troelsen): Well, now that you have made a few apps, as you move forward and it gets confusing at times, you realise that this .NET Framework is really wide. This is the book that give you an overall view on the technology from the philosophy of .NET through through the core C# programming constructs, the advanced C# programming constructs and web and desktop user interfaces, among other things. It even goes through more obscure concepts such as shared assemblies, delegates, late binding, workflow foundation, COM interoperability, etc. In short, a very complete book.

ASP.NET 3.5 Social Network (by Andrew Siemers) : after you grab the key concepts and play around with the technology through a few projects, maybe you would want to launch an actual product, something that people could use. The way to go about that is probably to see how experts do it, for instance, how they build discussion boards, membership systems or blogs. Better yet, this book will teach you how to build a complete ASP.NET social network from start to finish.

Building a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP.NET 3.5 (by Omar Zabir): This one is definitely the pièce de résistance. This book not only teaches how to build a State-of-the-Art Ajax website using ASP.NET, LINQ, advanced ajax concepts, Windows WorkFlow and other cutting-edge Microsoft technologies; it also shows how to solve real life production challenges such as deployment, hosting, performance optimisation, scalability, caching, security, monitoring, etc.

That's it. Your turn now. Thanks for sharing your favourite books in the comments.

Music is like magic... They say music can alter moods and talk to you (Eminem said.) In those tough times when you get tired or even hopeless about your goals as they seem so far/unreachable, music is definitely one of the weapons at your disposal (beyond the fact that loud music helps stay awake when you write code work at night) ; Motivational music helps you to keep going and to pick yourself up when you are at your lowest.

Well, I just thought I would share some songs that I find particulary helpful and motivating. I hope you would find among these some that would help you too. I am not claiming that they are the best motivational songs ever or anything like that, these are just what I listen to.

So without further ado, here is my top 10 :

10. Internet Dream (by Tay Zonday)

Mostly because it reminds me of my own internet dream.

Capping the flag in a virtual dash
Skipping your wedding to play in a match

Shut all the blinds you mighta been seen
Sittin' alone with your internet dream

Winning the race for your digital fix
Living your life with a clickity-click

9. He Lives In You (from The Lion King 2)

Yes, you can. Believe in yourself.

Wait! there's no mountain too great
Hear these words and have faith

He lives in you, he lives in me
He watches over everything we see
Into the waters, into the truth
In your reflection, he lives in you

8. You Are Going Down (by Sick Puppies)

Some motivation to crush face your competitors.

Define your meaning of war (to me it's what we do when we're bored)
I feel the heat coming off of the blacktop (And it makes me want it more)

Because I'm hyped up, outta control; if it's a fight I'm ready to go
I wouldn't put my money on the other guy if you know what I know that I know

Define your meaning of fun (To me it's when we're getting done)
I feel the heat coming off of the blacktop (So get ready for another one)

Let's take a trip down memory lane
The words circulate in my brain
You can treat this like another "all I'm saying"
But don't cry like a bitch when you feel the pain

It's been a long time coming and the tables' turned around
Cause one of us is goin' down
I'm not running, it's a little different now
Cause one of us is goin' down

This is hardly worth fighting for
But it's the little petty shit that I can't ignore
With my fist in your face and your face on the floor
It'll be a long time coming, but you got the message now
Cause I was never going, yeah, you're the one that's going down !

7. New Dork (by Pantless Knights)

A funny and positive view about the entrepreneur state of mind.

Now Im in the blogosphere, now I'm in the twitterverse
Fans get so immersed, but I'm a nerd forever

Used to be the basement, back at my mom's place
Buildin web traffic so that we could sell an ad space

New sega genesis, entrepreneur time
Makin big plans, to dominate the online

Science is the new art, databases day to day
Geeks spreadin' sheet smarts, hustle, make the data pay
I could be in Valleywag plus Geekologie
Tell from my avatar, that I'm most definitely:

The New Dork,
Social networks - what dreams are made of, There's nothing you can't do
Now you're the New Dork
This V.C. money is brand new, the geek is now damn cool

6. Geek (by Mr Washable)

That one is not on Youtube anymore but here is a FREE MP3

My favorite show is DBZ, I play World of Warcraft and Halo 3
I love Call of Duty World at War, and you know that I play it a lot
I like Photoshop And the movie Robocop
Because I am a nerd and I am a geek, geek, geek

I never ever leave my room
I love blogging, math is my hobbie
Everybody says I’m a geek geek geek
Cause they think I’m cool when I use 1337, l33t, leet

I’m obsessed with watchin Naruto
Never gonna miss an episode
I collect Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh!

I still play my Nintendo, I get really good grades
I rock at Programming, there’s nothin I can’t do
IM me whenever I get online, Nobody got skills like mine

Even though I don’t play baseball, I’m always runnin home

5. Lose Yourself (by Eminem)

Go ahead and totally commit yourself to your art. That nerd version is a nice parody :

You better lose yourself in the music (whatever your art is), the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo

No more games, I'ma change what you call rage
I was playing in the beginning, the mood all changed

You can do anything you set your mind to, man

4. Rock'n'Roll Nerd (by Tim Minchin)

This sounds to me like a strong message of hope and persistence, especially if you replace the concept of music with the context of this crazy world of technology:

He knows that he will always be a "start-up" nerd
He'll keep writing "apps" the world doesn't care about
And though it sounds absurd
He'll just keep writing

But you see the problem is
He always dreamt of being a star
But he learned "C#" instead of "php"
Which in the "startup world" doesn't get you very far
...
But he was convinced one day
He'd rock their fucking asses
Be an icon for the disenfranchised masses
Grow his hair long and rebel against the state
But just for now that would have to wait
Cause he's running late for his morning classes
...
While his mates all go out late
Popping pills and having fun
He goes home and showers
and gets a good eight hours
He gets his thrills from his morning run
And while his mates all go on dates
Taking speed and drinking cans of Jim Bean
He stays home and "codes"
Curls up with a book
With the girl he's had since he was seventeen

Cause he's never really been part of the scene
Give him "champaign", he'll take "caffeine"

And though he wants to be all grungy and cool
He spent fifteen years in "catholic" school

You can criticise him, but he won't care
Cause he wants to rock, and he will never be deterred
But he'll always be a fucked up little, try-hard, wannabe "start-up" nerd

3. Explode (by Tay Zonday)

Hey kid, you're gonna get old
You're not gonna be a centerfold
Better blow up, better get rich
Better be makin' that beat explode

Hey kid, the college degree
It ain't gonna beat back poverty
Tough kid, it's a rough world
Better be makin' that beat explode

2. Till I Collapse (by Eminem)

Do not give up.

Sometimes you just feel tired and when you feel weak, you feel like you wanna just give up.
But you gotta search within you, you gotta find that inner strength
And just pull that shit out of you and get that motivation to not give up
And not be a quitter, no matter how bad you wanna just fall flat on your face and collapse.

Till the roof comes off, till the lights go out
Till my legs give out, can’t shut my mouth.
Till the smoke clears out - am I high? Perhaps
I'ma rip this shit till my bone collapse.

I will not fall,
I will stand tall,
Feels like no one could beat me.

1. Remember The Name (by Fort Minor)

This reminds you what it takes to succeed and leave a legacy.

This is 10% luck, 20% skill
15% concentrated power of will
5% pleasure, 50% pain
and a 100% reason to remember the name...

Nobody really knows how or why he works so hard
It seems like he's never got time
Because he writes every "code" and he writes every line
And I've seen him at work when that light goes on in his mind
It's like a design is written in his head every time
Before he even touches a "keyboard" or speaks of "work time"

How about you ? What songs pump you up ?

The promotional mix, which is the overall range of techniques available to the marketer, comprises many elements but I am going to focus here on Internet marketing: products distribution, information and promotional benefits to consumers and businesses through internet technologies. Internet promotion is very convenient for a developer on a low budget (global reach at relatively low cost, metrics, dialogue with users, avoiding the necessity for intermediary salespeople...). The main ways to go about it include:

What's the difference between products and brands ? A product may be anything that has the ability to meet customer needs whereas branding is the process in which companies distinguish their product offerings from competition.

The benefits of brands: 

Marketing segmentation is the identification of individuals and organizations with similar characteristics that have important implications for determining marketing strategy. Therefore, market segmentation involves the division of a diversified market into a number of smaller submarkets that have common features.

Once the market segments have been identified, the next important activity is the selection of target markets. Target marketing refers to the choice of specific segments to serve. Suppose you make a social network site, you should first target a specific niche. An example could be to create a site for french speakers, aged 25-35, who like to dance.

Proceed with branding

Marketing research is extremely important. Companies that are really marketing oriented recognize that they need to always be in touch with what's happening in the market (and so should you). Customer needs are constantly changing, often in ways that are very subtle. If we consider the history of computing, where we went from huge machines, to smaller ones, reaching the home personal computer; and from disconnect machines to the need to connect them as a network and then to the Internet. There were then so many resources online that there was a need to sort them(as Yahoo did), and them to search through them (as Google did). More recently, there were a need to take the physical life social experience online (as Facebook did) and now we can feel that the people need is to take the internet everywhere they go, and we are slowly going mobile.

Many technological revolutions happen accidentally but most of them are the results of relevant research and observation. On the Internet, there are many (cheap) ways a programmer can find out what people want: 

Next : Marketing segmentation and targeting