Path

Shorten first?

This book has one cardinal sin: not understanding when more details are helpful vs. superfluous. On the side of harmful brevity, there’s Chapter 12 about when and how to extract helper methods. I think everything in the chapter is correct and good advice, but it’s also vague enough that I can’t see it being useful to anyone who doesn’t already understand it.

Connect the ideas last?

On the whole, Beck seeks to provide a repertoire of easy wins you can earn when you drive by some code. I think he succeeds in that goal, although it’s a rather impoverished repertoire. (E.g.: they can’t solve any of the refactoring challenges I’ve been running lately.) But if you’re someone who lacks a repertoire at all, I can see them as great training wheels.

What is a painkiller?

A painkiller is a pharmaceutical that relieves pain. The most common families work by suppressing production of prostaglandins, molecules involved in the transmission of pain information. The over-the-counter oral painkillers are acetaminophen (a.k.a. paracetamol, Tylenol), aspirin, ibuprofen (Motrin / Advil), and naproxen (Aleve).