The editors probably placed this last because many people shopping for books don't really want to see advice about how to behave when they're trying to figure out code problems. Most people, especially people just starting out, just want to know how to write code. Many people have to go through several projects to discover that you can waste two-thirds of the time and effort doing the job in "Fire, Aim, Ready" sequence instead of "Ready, Aim, Fire" sequence.

The first chapter, from Jones' book on ASP.NET, is one of the most compact, yet thorough, set of common-sense rules you are likely to find anywhere about what is actually important in a programming project. The advice applies to virtually any software development - from machine language to COBOL. Since there is really no code to figure out, it's a quick read. You might want to read it first and frequently.

After this philosophical introduction, the section dives into VB.NET specific technology again with good introductions to deployment (Windows Installer), the architecture of software "tiers" (User Services, Business Services, Data Services), and a chapter with two solid sample projects just to wrap everything up (an Invoice project and an Online Store project).

The bottom line on this book is that if you can only afford one book, this one is a leading choice. And if you can afford a lot of books, you still might want to buy this one first just to help you figure out which ones to buy next.