Dave Thomas is co-founder of The Pragmatic Bookshelf, co-author of the landmark books The Pragmatic Programmer, Programming Ruby and Agile Web Development with Rails as well as many other titles. Dave is also a highly sought after as a keynote speaker, an enthusiastic and popular educator and a true icon of the modern software development industry. In this preview of the groundbreaking three part interview, Dave talks about his early career influences, gives us a peek inside The Pragmatic Bookshelf, and then talks about what's next for him and the industry. Along the way, Dave provides his thoughts on the future of publishing, books and even the state of higher education and language today. It's a thought-provoking, compelling and entertaining interview.