What Do You Think of This Book Title?

Click the picture to see the book’s web page.

Dave Thomas — not the founder of the Wendy’s burger chain, but author

of the highly- acclaimed book The Pragmatic Programmer — helps to put out a series of

useful programming books bearing the Pragmatic Programmer mark. One

such book coming out in August is titled My Job Went to India (and all

I Got was This Lousy Book). Here’s a bit of the book’s description from

its site:

HINT: It’s not “their” fault, it’s ours…

The American IT job market is slowly coming apart at the seams, and

it’s all our fault. Most of us have been stumbling around letting our

careers take us where they may, and now we’re surprised when our

companies are shipping our jobs overseas for a fraction of the

price. It’s time to take control of our careers, and in the process,

learn to stay both relevant and employed. This book will show you how

to take action to avoid becoming yet another casualty of offshoring.

There’s a little more detail about this book in my professional blog, The Farm.

In this blog entry,

Dave notes that some people have written to him claiming that the

book’s title is racist. Dave in turn has set up a forum in the form of

a wiki page where you can comment on the issue and even vote on what he

should do.

My own feeling is that the title is not racist, based on the old maxim “if it bends, it’s comedy. If it breaks, it isn’t.”

What do you think?