List out the articles/writings that inspired you to be a better developer
They write the right stuff http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/06/writestuff.html
Made me think harder about edge case conditions
Programmings dirtiest little secret http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/09/programmings-dirtiest-little-secret.html
Made me learn touch typing
More of a reality check than an inspiration, but No Silver Bullets is a good read :)
Wil Shipley's WWDC Student Talk isn't bad if you're considering starting your own software company. It's pretty Mac-centric of course, but I think it could apply to anyone writing their own software.
Randy Pausch's Last Lecture is the single most inspirational thing I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. It isn't directly related to development, but I don't think something that inspires me to be a better developer has to be.
Janine Benyus: 12 sustainable design ideas from nature allowed me to look a bit outside to catch ideas and prgramming concepts in nature, when it already exists.
It might be strange, but it helps a lt sometimes, getting a clue about how nature is organized to get back this organization in your dev process.
I know it was an advertisement, but I really enjoyed EA's old two-page ad on software artistry "Can a computer make you cry?".
http://martinfowler.com/articles/designDead.html On design, Refactoring and agile in general.
Scott Berkun has a load of essays on various stuff relating to a programming career, mostly about personal development, teamwork, team leading, motivation etc.
For example, from #46 - Why software sucks:
The creator wants the consumer/user to care about the very things the consumer doesn’t care about.
For example:
Creator: I love the power of Unix/AJAX/C#/whatever.
Customer: I want to finish my work and go play outside.
Sometimes this love is so strong that when a creator hears a "this sucks" or even a "I can’t figure this out" response, they take it as an attack on their beliefs
Personally I find Joel Spolsky articles very inspiring and have kept me inspired since the first time I read them, I'll never forget the first article I read;
Lord Palmerston on Programming
... you can learn 90% of what you use day by day with a week of learning. But the other 10% might take you a couple of years catching up. That's where the really experienced programmers will shine over the people who say "whatever you want me to do, I can just pick up the book and learn how to do it." If you're building a team, it's OK to have a lot of less experienced programmers cranking out big blocks of code using the abstract tools, but the team is not going to work if you don't have some really experienced members to do the really hard stuff. ...
That statement changed my mind over how am I investing my time in learning and producing.
Jim McCarthy's 1995 video presentation "How to ship great software on time." He's now selling it by the name 21 Rules of Thumb.
the tall office building artistically considered is a link I want to add to the discussion as it is an essay which captures the thoughts and ideas of the man, Louis H. Sullivan, who coined the phrase, "Form follows function". I find it to be very relevant and specially the thoughts in it about halfway through the essay are a must read for any engineer. Thoughts which are true even hundred years since the essay, thoughts like,
The man who designs in the spirit and with the sense of responsibility to the generation he lives in must be no coward, no denier, no bookworm, no dilettante. He must live of his life and for his life in the fullest, most consummate sense. He must realize at once and with the grasp of inspiration that the problem of the tall office building is one of the most stupendous, one of the most magnificent opportunities that the Lord of Nature in His beneficence has ever offered to the proud spirit of man.