Therapy Tops Engineers' Best Professional Development Spend, Beating Books and Courses

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A developer analyzed all 540 responses to a highly upvoted Hacker News thread asking engineers about their best professional development expenditure. Therapy and coaching emerged as the top recommendation, cited by 51 distinct engineers, surpassing technical books, certifications, and online courses. Respondents credited coaching with unlocking career growth more than any technical resource, with one founder and CTO calling it the best money they had ever spent. Classic technical books such as Refactoring, Designing Data-Intensive Applications, and Domain-Driven Design still featured in the rankings, but further down the list. The broader pattern suggests that once foundational technical skills are in place, engineers see the greatest returns from investing in communication, leadership, and mental health.

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Four calculations that reveal your LLM feature's true monthly cost upfront

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

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