The Healthy Programmer, Second Edition Book Portal

Small changes to your habits can improve your health—without getting in the way of your work.

Joe Kutner @jkutner

edited by Brian P. Hogan @bphogan

To keep doing what you love, you need to maintain your own systems, not just the ones you write code for. Regular exercise and proper nutrition help you learn, remember, concentrate, and be creative–skills critical to doing your job well. In this book you’ll see how to change your work habits, master exercises that make working at a computer more comfortable, and develop a plan to keep fit, healthy, and sharp for years to come.

Programmers are thinking about their health now more than ever, but a lot has changed in the years since The Healthy Programmer was first published. New research has expanded the science of what it means to be healthy, and new technologies make tracking your health easier than ever before.

The Healthy Programmer gives you a daily plan of action that’s incremental and iterative just like the software development processes you’re used to. Every tip, trick, and best practice is backed up by the advice of doctors, scientists, therapists, nutritionists, and numerous fitness experts.

In this second edition, you’ll review the latest scientific research to understand how being healthy is good for your body and mind, including a new chapter on mental health. You’ll start by adding a small amount of simple activity to your day–no trips to the gym needed. You’ll mitigate back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, headaches, and many other common sources of pain. You’ll also refactor your diet to properly fuel your body without gaining weight or feeling hungry. Then, you’ll turn the exercises and activities into a pragmatic workout methodology that doesn’t interfere with the demands of your job and may actually improve your cognitive skills.

You’ll also discover the secrets of prominent figures in the software community who turned their health around by making diet and exercise changes. Finally, you’ll make your healthy lifestyle pragmatic, attainable, and fun. If you’re going to live well, you should enjoy it.

Joe Kutner is fascinated by programmers, and is devoted to helping them become more productive, smarter, and happier. As the developer experience architect at Heroku, and later at Salesforce, he designed and built developer tools that have been enjoyed by millions of programmers. This gave him the chance to better understand how developers think and how small changes to their habits can result in big differences to their productivity and their health.