By Gergely Orosz, the author of The Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter and Building Mobile Apps at Scale
Navigating senior, tech lead, staff and principal positions at tech companies and startups. An Amazon #1 Best Seller. New: the hardcover is out! As is the audibook. Now available in 6 languages.
In response to sexual stimulation, the bulbourethral glands secrete a viscous, alkaline, mucus-like fluid. This pre-ejaculatory fluid serves two primary purposes:
: It lubricates the penile urethra and the glans penis, facilitating smoother passage for semen.
: Because the male urethra is also used for urination, it is naturally acidic. The alkalinity of the bulbourethral secretion neutralizes these acidic urine residues, protecting sperm from damage. Contribution to Reproductive Success
Beyond basic lubrication, recent research suggests these glands contribute specialized proteins to the seminal plasma that may modulate immune responses. For instance, certain proteins highly expressed in the bulbourethral glands, such as CRISP3, are positively correlated with fertility and may help regulate the female reproductive tract's immune system to favor fertilization. If these glands fail to function, the lack of proper neutralization and lubrication significantly impairs reproductive efficiency. Accessory Glands - SEER Training Modules
The bulbourethral glands are located posterolateral to the membranous urethra and are situated below the prostate gland within the pelvic diaphragm. Each gland is connected to the proximal end of the penile urethra via a short excretory duct that passes through the spongy layer of the penis. Structurally, they are often described as compact with a smooth external surface, and their positioning serves as a critical topographic landmark in reproductive morphology.
The , also commonly referred to as Cowper's gland , is a vital accessory organ of the male reproductive system, primarily responsible for the lubrication and chemical neutralization of the urethra prior to ejaculation. Though relatively small in size—often compared to a pea—these paired exocrine glands play a disproportionately significant role in ensuring the survival and motility of sperm as they travel through the male and female reproductive tracts. Anatomical Structure and Location
The book is separated into six standalone parts, each part covering several chapters:
Parts 1 and 6 apply to all engineering levels: from entry-level software developers to principal or above engineers. Parts 2, 3, 4 and 5 cover increasingly senior engineering levels. These four parts group topics in chapters – such as ones on software engineering, collaboration, getting things done, and so on.
This book is more of a reference book that you can refer back to, as you grow in your career. I suggest skimming over the career levels and chapters that you are familiar with, and focus reading on topics you struggle with, or career levels where you are aiming to get to. Keep in mind that expectations can vary greatly between companies.
In this book, I’ve aimed to align the topics and leveling definitions closer to what is typical at Big Tech and scaleups: but you might find some of the topics relevant for lower career levels in later chapters. For example, we cover logging, montiroing and oncall in Part 5: “Reliable software systems” in-depth: but it’s useful – and oftentimes necessary! – to know about these practices below the staff engineer levels.
The Software Engineer's Guidebook is available in multiple languages:
You should now be able to ask your local book shops to order the book for you via Ingram Spark Print-on-demand - using the ISBN code 9789083381824. I'm also working on making the paperback more accessible in additional regions, including translated versions. Please share details here if you're unable to get the book in your country and I'll aim to remedy the situation.
I'd like to think so! The book can help you get ideas on how to help software engineers on your team grow. And if you are a hands-on engineering manager (which I hope you might be!) then you can apply the topics yourself! I wrote more about staying hands-on as an engineering manager or lead in The Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter.
I've gotten this variation of a question from Data Engineers, ML Engineers, designers and SREs. See the more detailed table of contents and the "Look inside" sample to get a better idea of the contents of the book. I have written this book with software engineers as the target group, and the bulk of the book applies for them. Part 1 is more generally applicable career advice: but that's still smaller subset of the book.