Therein is the career-changing aspect. Yes they seem obvious now, but you had a roadmap for your learning. That is why it, and many of the other books, are career-changing.

:)

I read the Pragmatic Programmer last year, and it was .. very boring. Most of the tips were like "doh, of course". It's a beginner's book, not for someone who have been trying to improve their code (and processes around it) already for some years.

Yes -- a beginner's book for someone starting now, but essential for everybody in the industry nonetheless.

Pragmatic Programmer has influenced enough people that it has changed the industry for better. These ideas and practices may sound common sense now, but were not until popularized -- I suspect -- by Pragmatic Programmer. If you found good practices already entrenched in the ecosystem when you joined the industry, the roots can be traced back to a few good books such as Pragmatic Programmer. Even though these ideas may not have been ground breaking, nobody now needs to spend time convincing their peers about these practices from first principles. Time and energy saved for everyone.

My point is, I have seen enough [senior] programmers to whom clean code etc. does not come naturally, and they always benefit from reading this book. Not that they aren't smart, just that someone needs to present a good case which this book does very well.

Context: it was published in 1999.