97 Things Every Programmer Should Know

If you bought this, then you've wasted money, regardless of your level of expertise.

If you're a novice who's just starting out or a developer who wants to find out more about best practices, find books that target the areas you're looking to improve on; they will be way more useful by providing concrete and specific examples.

If you're an expert looking for a refresher, just about any software development blogs, sites, or forums that you've been following (you are doing this, right?) will give you better value.

The 97 things are each told in a max of 2 pages - very little room for anything more than a generic discussion. They range from common sense and popular practices to technical challenges and domain expertise. I doubt any professional developer would find even half of these immediately relevant and applicable to their current work/role. They just cover too many areas in too few details.

I'm not saying the advice is bad (although I did find myself shaking my head at a couple), most are good valid advice - I'm just saying this is a poor way to acquire them.