Have you (or anyone else) read Code Complete? If so, how do you feel about it? I started reading it because everyone recommended it, but I stopped at page 100 or so, because I felt it was getting no where.
Much of the book is spent making arguments for and providing evidence for things that are considered obvious today.
So if you stopped because the material sounded obvious and redundant, then maybe it is for you. But if you stopped because the material seemed seemed unimportant or trivial, then I strongly urge you to start up with it again.
It is a thick book. But you can still learn a lot even if you don't read it cover to cover. Even if it only makes you a better developer by 0.5%, isn't that still worth it?
My full review of it is here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R269BBARXH1V6R/
I read Code Complete 2 after developing software for maybe 6-7 years in an environment like this. Much of it was obvious, but the rest was a revelation. Same with The Pragmatic Programmer.
Several years later I read a book called "The Passionate Programmer", which was like the book described in this article - soft, career development skills. That was probably the most important book I've ever read. In fact it's how I found out about Hacker News in addition to a whole bunch of different books. It lit a fire in me.
4 years later, I have a career that is so dramatically different I don't even know where to begin. On the same token, I reread that book (Passionate Programmer) recently and it does seem like common sense I would absorbed over time from things I read on HN.
I think more people read those books and say, "yes, I agree with all of this already" than read them and think, "oh, here is a new thing I haven't thought before and will use from now on."
Since then most of the lessons in Code Complete have become part of the soul of modern languages, frameworks and libraries. So you learn them through proxy.
Still, I still come across people who could learn from reading it again, especially what it says over comments, testing and generally writing legible code.
The book is about the tiny details of coding. Getting the small things right, as in any sport or profession, gives you the tools to get the big things right.
But if you are in a section that bores you, skip around a bit!
That said, it has a lot of solid advice. It also has some less than solid advice which is more of an opinion.
I would still recommend people read it. I also recommend they read the references. I also recommend they talk with other people, look at their experiences, and try to figure things out for themselves.
Adding another thought here:
Some things have to be learnt through experience. You can read a really great book about swimming but it probably won't make you a good swimmer. So that's one thing.
The other thing is that I found the book trying to be very rigorous about subjects where it's simply impossible to do so. There are so many different ways to approach different problems and things like cost vary hugely between different businesses. Sometimes doing things one way makes sense in a given context and not in another. What we need is for people to develop that understanding rather than simply learn some rules.
Kind of book equivalent of opening facebook/news for 5 minutes and then going back to work. Except that you learn little bit each 5-10 minutes long session.
Generally, for a programmer, I'd say skip it. Or pick it up in a library and skim over it, and you'll get 90% of the benefit. And yeah, the whole thing could be condensed into a large blog post / small handbook and it would be immensely improved.