Being the Professional Beginner I am a constant learner. Where do I get this knowledge from? How to follow my progress?

This is exactly what this article is about. I will present to you the path I chose to follow for the next few month, that will, I hope, bring me to a higher level of understanding, and provide me with a critical view of the Object Oriented Programming world.

##Turbulent sea At the very beginning of my research, I was overwhelmed! So many resources: books, blogs, videos. So much information was available I didn't quite know what to do with it or where to start.

In addition, a lot of technical articles assume previous knowledge from the reader. Not necessarily technical knowledge per se. But rather a knowledge of the history of evolution in the use of technologies in the world of Computer science

From my observation, here is what typically happens:

• Some new concept is introduced
• It is supposed to solve a problem a lot of programmers have
• Everybody starts using it
• Everybody starts abusing it
• Everybody complains about it
• . . .
• Some new concept is introduced
• . . .

And the loop goes on and on. I'm sure there are very valid reasons for this cycle. The needs evolve with the available means. I get that. But the thing is: it made it incredibly difficult for me to make sense out of all of this.

Is this technology A supposed to solve B, or has it been introduced to solve problems present in C, C being a solution to some of the problem from B, with A reintroducing a subset of B's previous problems?

This is what the industry looks like from the point of view of a beginner. On top of that come religion wars on methodology A vs B. Literally chaotic!

I quickly realized that simply browsing articles, reading blog posts, checking StackOverflow topics just wouldn't cut it. I needed a plan of action.

##A structured journey

Believe it or not, even in 2016, nothing beats books when it comes to a concentration of knowledge around a specific topic. The problem with the internet is that one thing leads to another, and another, and another. And we're back in chaos!

Books do not have this problem. Words are set in stone, well paper, and do not evolve with time. Making books a much easier way to get an idea of the state of the industry at a certain point in time. The problem with the internet ironically is: It's up to date.

Since I like to go in depth, and finish what I started, studying from books takes time. Therefore I really wanted to pick the right ones.

I spent a full month crafting a list of books, that has a defined progression, where every single one of these books help me in a tangible way to move forward to my goal: Having an overview of Object Oriented programming. Thus is born my roadmap: My Learning Path.

##My Learning Path

In this section will follow a list of books. These are the books that constitute my roadmap. Each of these achieves specific purpose, which will be described below. Also, will be stated the status of the book:

• DONE
  • I read the book, and used its teaching in multiple examples. I think I integrated its principles. At least enough to move on for now. This doesn't mean I wouldn't often come back to it for further information.
• READ
  • I read the book, applied it on some example. But I do not have a sufficient understanding of the concepts exposed to consider it done.
• IN PROGRESS
  • Currently working on this book
• NEXT
  • Is the next one on my list
• BACKLOG
  • Are scheduled for later use.

####Clean Code by Robert Martin ######Purpose Get the fundamentals of well structured and organized code. What does good code looks like? And how to achieve this goal?

######Status: DONE

####Tdd By Example by Kent Beck ######Purpose Understand what TDD really is about. Where does it comes from? What problems was it supposed to solve, without all the things that got added along the way.

######Status: DONE

####Practical TDD and Acceptance TDD for Java Developers by Lasse Koskela ######Purpose This book is much more recent than the original Tdd By Example, therefore it benefits from the cumulated experience of years of TDD practice. Knowing the good, the bad and the ugly, what are the solutions that contemporary applications use?

######Status: **DONE

####Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler ######Purpose How to gradually modify the structure of a whole codebase while keeping it functioning at the same time? That's what I'm definitely highly impatient to learn from this book.

######Status: NEXT

####Refactoring to patterns by Joshua Kerievsky ######Purpose Same goal as with the previous book. But both have been recommended countless times. I guess there's never too much of it. It sounds fascinating anyway :)

######Status: NEXT

####Agile Software Development, Principles, Patterns, and Practices by Robert Martin ######Purpose In this book Robert Martin introduced the SOLID principles, among many other things. This book is considered a reference in Object Oriented Design. I hope this book will help me in my goal of modular design. But I didn't research it too much, I just assumed it's fantastic. It's Uncle's Bob after all.

######Status: BACKLOG

####Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael Feathers ######Purpose Having a strong test harness is such a great feeling, and gradual refactoring helps keep this experience as enjoyable as possible. But what happens when a whole production system is not covered by tests? Well, I hope this book will teach me more.

I decided to keep it for later because I first want to have a strong knowledge of the fundamentals. Getting familiar with the happy path before tackling trickier situations.

######Status: BACKLOG

####The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas ######Purpose Again I heard so many good things about this book, I didn't want to spoil the pleasure of discovering it. So I do not know exactly what it is about, but I'm sure I will enjoy it. I scheduled it just after I finish Clean Code

######Status: DONE

####Domain Driven Design by Eric Evans ######Purpose I said to myself when I started this adventure, that until I was done, I would not allow the list to evolve. It is very important to have an end. It allows me to measure progress and keep motivation. You can find out more about that in my "TDD, My hopes" article.

However when starting to take a look at the hexagonal architecture, and trying to implement it in an Android Application: The Tic Tac Toe Project. I was confronted with some very complex conceptual problems as to what should happen in the domain and at its border.

From what I could read, this book seems the perfect candidate to solve these dilemmas. So I decided for now to use temporary solutions that still make sense, and postpone the real thinking to when I will read this book.

So far is not scheduled at a specific, I will decide later depending on my progress on other topics.

######Status: BACKLOG

###A long way to go That concludes my roadmap. I still have a long way to go before seeing the end of the tunnel. But it's an enjoyable ride, so that's ok. You can also use this page to follow my progress if you are interested in doing so.

If you have any thoughts on this list of books, please leave a comment below. I would love to hear from you. For this specific article, I really hope you think this list makes sense and is consistent, because it is very unlikely it will evolve before I am done with it. But still any input on the subject is welcome.

— The Professional Beginner