Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming Review

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Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming ReviewIf you are a person who cares at all about the art, craft, or science of software development, you will not be able to put this book down.
Seibel (a hacker-turned-writer himself) talked to some big names in our field. Topics covered include: How do you learn to be a programmer? How do you perfect your skills? How important is formal education? Which programming languages are good and which are terrible? What kinds of tools do great programmers use? (Which text editors? IDEs? Debuggers?) How do you reason about a program, bottom-up or top-down? What's the best way to collaborate with other coders? etc. etc.
As you might expect, the interviewees agree in some areas and wildly disagree in others, but there are insights aplenty. Some answers may surprise you, like how many of these coders shun formal debuggers and use mostly print statements, or how many of them shun IDEs for Emacs (or even pen-and-paper).
Aside from the broad questions, Seibel gets the interviewees to open up about what it was like to work on the projects they are famous for. These stories are engaging and entertaining. Any coder who has stayed up till 4AM squashing bugs will find kindred spirits in these books. And the stories are somehow inspiring, as you realize that even great programmers suffer through the same frustrations and ups and downs that all of the rest of us go through.
Those interviewed also share insights into what they think of our modern world of programming. Most agree that we live in complicated and troubled times as we battle layer upon layer of software complexity. This book has lessons to be learned from the very brief history of our field, and advice for the future ("Keep it simple!").
This book is deliciously buzzword-free and the programmers interviewed give their honest (sometimes brutally honest) opinions about what they love and what they hate.
The author and all of those interviewed share a passion for programming and it's hard not to be swept up into it. Very good book.Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming OverviewPatterned after the best selling Founders at Work, Coders at Work represents two years of interviews with some of the top programmers of our times. Readers will find out what their work habits are, coding preferences, language preferences, style choices and idiosyncrasies in the fascinating look at how some of the best in the world do their work.

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Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days (Recipes: a Problem-Solution Ap) Review

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Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days (Recipes: a Problem-Solution Ap) ReviewThe Summary
Jessica Livingston has written an amazing book. If you want to read the stories behind some of the most well known software companies in the last 30 years, you will find it in this book. But Livingston hasn't just covered the usual suspects (Google, Microsoft), she has included a diverse collection from Steve Wozniak (Apple) to David Heinemeier Hansson (37 Signals), Dan Bricklin (Visicalc) to Blake Ross (Firefox). It covers a lot of ground from the early 80's software boom to the Web 2.0 starts ups. But there is more than just stories about starting companies, there is real advice from the frontline trenches of software start-ups. Keep your post-it notes and highlighter handy, if you are like me you will be annotating and highlighting a lot!
The Audience
If you have ever considered a start-up you should definitely read this book. It's like picking the brains of some very experienced entrepreneurs. Anybody that has already tried their hand at start-ups will recognize the value of this book. Most will probably feel like I did, and wish that they had had this book before they started their first company. It could have saved me many painful lessons (both financially and personally). Reading these interviews is like having 32 mentors.
The Details
Like many people I am always a little skeptical of `success stories'. Just because someone did x, y and z, doesn't mean that I could follow these very steps and be as successful. Just because Aunt Ethel, who lived to be a 100, attributes her long life to drinking a glass of whisky every day, doesn't mean I can drink a glass of whisky every day and live to be a 100. Instead of a collection of fluffy `creation myth' stories written about software companies, Livingston has put a lot of thought into how she approached these interviews and has collected some real gems of insights from these entrepreneurs. She has uncovered a gold mine of valuable advice and information about starting a company. As you read these stories you start to see some patterns emerging. Some of these patterns I recognize from my own experiences, but others were new to me. Sometimes you see contradictory advice from different founders; one tells you, you need to focus on the technology and somebody else explains that it's more important to focus on business/market opportunity. There are definitely multiple paths to starting a company, but some advice is repeated story after story, and these seem to be universal truths.
The Ideas
Here are some of the universal truths that I culled from the interviews:
- Iterate through ideas, the first idea isn't always the best
- Business plans are important - but be prepared to change it many times
- You need to be naïve - "unencumbered by reality"
- Persistence makes all the difference
- Passion - you need to be really excited about what you are doing and think it's really important
- Understand and listen to your end users
The book is full of ideas and advice like this.
The Take-Aways
Overall, I can't say enough good things about this book. Obviously it's aimed at entrepreneurs, but I know there are going to be many people just interested in the stories behind their favorite companies or people. Personally I loved the interviews with Ray Ozzie, Joel Spolsky, Joe Kraus and Steve Wozniak. I was also fascinated by the stories behind companies like: 37 Signals, Six Apart, del.icio.us and Craigslist. I was even surprised by the story behind `Hot or Not', it's not as shallow as you might think.
Entrepreneurs -- wanna-be, new and experienced -- you NEED to read, think, digest and act on the advice in this book and your next/current entrepreneurial venture will go much smoother.
Kes Sampanthar
Inventor of ThinkCube
Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days (Recipes: a Problem-Solution Ap) OverviewThis is the paperback edition of the award winning and best selling book, Founders at Work"All the best things that I did at Apple came from (a) not having money and (b) not having done it before, ever." - Steve Wozniak, AppleFounders at Work tells of the early struggles for independence and acceptance of many of modern technology's giants. Their stories are told through personal interviews that are at times hilarious, at times painful, but always inspiring. The personalities represented in this book are role models for all startup wannabes who are committed to their visions and want to know what the sacrifices (and excitement) are like.

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Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies (For Dummies (Career/Education)) Review

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Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies (For Dummies (Career/Education)) ReviewFor the last six months I have been studying personal branding and online reputation management and their best practices. Obviously, I was intrigued by this book when it came out and decided to see what it was all about. I know Joshua and know that he is very knowledgeable in the world of Job Search and Social media- but I have to say that he has really outdone himself with this book. Not only does it help readers establish a personal brand, but it gives them the information they need to leverage social media in a way that will help them instead of hurt them. He provides incredible tools that give you a better understanding of the world of personal branding and even goes as far as to list off the common mistakes that people make while using social media (trust me, more people make these mistakes than you can imagine).
If you're entering the job market for the first time as a college graduate, entering it again because of the job market, or simply looking for a new job and do not have a personal brand or know what social media is- I recommend Joshua's book as the first thing you should read to get you started.Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies (For Dummies (Career/Education)) Overview

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