Books are a waste of time. Most of them are garbage to begin with, and most of them are practically obsolete by the time they are published. Few have any lasting staying power.
Besides, nobody ordained the author to be an authority on the subject. He was just a guy who wrote a book. It's zero indication of the quality of the content.
Writing code without guidance is probably the slowest way you can learn something. A good book or class will save you countless hours living with the consequences of your naive mistakes. Good writers and trainers forewarn people about pitfalls by providing fair warning about common mistakes. Better writers and trainers instill good mental models that timeless help the reader solve problems.
I'll agree that there are plenty of bad books that give bad advice. The solution isn't to say books are a waste of time. The solution is to recommend better books.
If one has knowledge others can benefit from, one doesn't need to be "ordained ... an authority" to write about it.
If one cannot find a mentor to tell you this is good Javascript and this is bad Javascript, then books can fill that void.
Writing code without any guidance can only get a developer so far. He needs examples of good solid idiomatic code to progress. A good book, often by "just a guy", can provide that.
Because there is no objective way to evaluate the quality of a book before reading it, and because any useful information in most of the few good technical books is of limited lifespan, books are a waste of time. It's not just that books can be bad. It's that most books are bad, and having to wade through them is what makes them a waste of time.
No, books are way better than reading blogs and forums. They keep a context and enforces the same style through the whole book which I find very useful
Totally agree. Best way to learn is to write, and if you want good examples to model after, check out the popular projects on Github. People are actually using those libraries and frameworks in production, unlike the toy examples in books.
One exception is more abstract thinking -- algorithms, general design principles, etc. I think a book can be handy there sometimes.
If a book on software is truly obsolete anytime shortly after publication, then the tech itself isn't truly stable.
Read "The C Programming Language", by Kernighan and and Ritchie. Written decades ago, still accurate and relevant today. "The Mythical Man-Month", "The Pragmatic Programmer", "Design Patterns"... books like this will always be relevant.
Maybe a good rule is to stick to CS books that have been in continuous print for at least ten years.
Besides, nobody ordained the author to be an authority on the subject. He was just a guy who wrote a book. It's zero indication of the quality of the content.
Just write code. Practice, practice, practice.