“Finding the Boundaries” Hero’s Journey
with Noel Rappin
@noelrappin
Even when you’re ultimately right about what the future holds, the twists and turns along the way can hide some real surprises.
Take a trip with PragProg author Noel Rappin to discover how getting from point A to Z isn’t just about reaching a final destination, it’s about scenic overlooks, different modes of transportation, and having the right travel partners.
INTERVIEW
Listen to the complete audio interview here:
WIN!
We’re giving away one of Noel’s books to one lucky winner! Simply post a comment or a question in his ask me anything (AMA) below, and the Devtalk bot will randomly pick a winner at a time of the author’s choosing … then automatically update this thread with the results!
TRANSCRIPT (abridged)
For those who prefer to read rather than listen, following are highlights from the interview.
On becoming an author…
For many software developers, becoming an author is completely unexpected. First they experiment with reviews and short blog posts; later they graduate to documentation and tutorials. One day, to their complete surprise, they wake up and find that their first full-length book just went into print.
For Noel Rappin, it was the reverse: “If you’d asked me in high school what I was more likely to be doing, writing versus programming for a living, I would have thought writing in some fashion.” And, in fact, Noel’s path to professional writing did start in school — graduate school.
Noel’s graduate advisor was writing a textbook on Squeak/Smalltalk and asked Noel to write an introduction that covered “just enough Smalltalk so that the rest of the book makes more sense to readers who had never used Smalltalk.” And while Noel was writing that introduction, he was also being introduced to what would become a major facet of his career.
A few years later, Noel was hanging out on a Usenet group for Python, when an editor from O’Reilly dropped by to see if anyone could help out a little with a book on Jython. Noel knew both Java and Python and figured he could “make up the difference.”
The book, Jython Essentials, turned out to be a bit more work than Noel expected, but it did expose him to important lessons about technical writing that he carries with him to this day. It also made it easier to transition to his second book, WxPython in Action, and, later, the first book Noel ever wrote that was fully “driven by passion,” Rails Test Prescriptions.
Even though Noel considers himself a software developer first, looking out across the ten books he’s authored, it’s pretty easy to see how his prediction way back in high school wasn’t too far off the mark.
On challenges and rewards…
Even though Noel is a veteran writer with lots of experience and well-established practices, he still faces challenges and fears with each new book.
“The thing that’s always scared me the most,” explains Noel, “is not the thing that I’m going to say that’s a mistake. It’s the thing that I’m not even going to know to say, because I don’t know the community well enough … It’s the thing that I’m just gonna skip entirely, because I don’t have the experience necessarily, or I don’t have all the experience to know what the important things are.”
To get over this hurdle, Noel turns to a trusted group of friends and peers who provide input and a sanity check. Noel says they help him “decide what’s real and what’s hype.”
In fact, the whole reason that Cypress ended up in Modern Front-End Development for Rails is because that very group of people told Noel that Cypress was the way to go.
And while skipping over something important is something to watch out for, Noel says the opposite is also true. Finding the boundaries — figuring out what not to include in a book — is equally as important.
For Noel, that means being in touch with his readers.
Noel knows his audience is real-world programmers looking to solve real-world problems, so sometimes that means going with a more mainstream approach rather than “taking a flyer on something that [he] just thought was cool.” Other times it means trying to keep up with a shifting ecosystem, like JavaScript, because that’s what his readers will have to do.
It isn’t easy, but with a focus on the audience and a good support network to rely on, Noel says these are obstacles that any author can overcome.
On career and beyond…
Noel has written technical articles, he’s worked on textbooks and references, he’s published with multiple publishers, and he’s even self-published… “two to three years before that was really viable,” he says.
For Noel, software development and technical writing go hand in hand.
According to Noel, the two disciplines feed into each other: “As a technical writer, continuing to be a day-to-day coder is the input to that [writing] process, mentally. It’s how I connect to the kinds of problems that the people who are reading the book are going to be solving.”
In addition to helping people solve problems, Noel says another “great thing about writing a book is that just by having written it, people assume a lot of authority.” And that authority can lead to speaking engagements, job offers, and more.
Noel has been publishing with the Pragmatic Bookshelf for many years, and he’s developed a strong working relationship with his longtime editor, Katharine Dvorak. Simply put, Noel says, “she gets what [I’m] trying to do.”
Noel also continues returning to the Bookshelf, because he says that “Pragmatic is great if you want to work with smart people who want to help you put out a really, really good book.” And he notes that Pragmatic’s royalty payment structure is … “very advantageous.”
We know how much Noel’s work means to his readers and to us, and we look forward to seeing what topics Noel will cover in his next ten books.
Now that you know his story, complete your collection of Noel’s PragProg titles today! Don’t forget you can get 35% off with the coupon code devtalk.com!
- Modern Front-End Development for Rails
book-modern-front-end-development-for-rails - Rails 5 Test Prescriptions
book-rails-5-test-prescriptions
Follow Noel:
Twitter, x.com
Substack, https://noelrap.substack.com
Linkedin, Noel Rappin - Deerfield, Illinois, United States | Professional Profile | LinkedIn
YOUR TURN!
We’re now opening up the thread for your questions! Ask Noel anything! Please keep it clean and don’t forget by participating you automatically enter the competition to win one of Noel’s ebooks!
