Review of Best Software Writing I

Books by on July 9, 2007 at 11:00 pm

For some reason, I seem to read voraciously when my wife is out of town. I recently finished two books that I should have read a long time ago that were both recommended by friends. Jeff lent me John Battelle’s the Search and Rahul lent me Joel Spolsky’s Best Software Writing I

I’ve been a long time reader of both of their blogs, but for some reason figured that their books were for ‘other people’, particularly those less familiar with their online writings. Both were great books and it is kind of criminal that I took so long to get to them.

Joel’s book also triggered me to delve deeper into Clay Shirky’s and Michael Lopp’s writings. I’ve read bits and pieces of their thoughts before, but have now dug deep enough to truly appreciate their insights. Clay’s thoughts on social software are a must read for those developing social software and Michael’s blog (Rands in Repose) is a must read for software managers.

I know I’m a bit late recommending these two, but definitely dig in if you haven’t already.

2 Comments

  1. sa — July 10, 2007 @ 12:57 pm

    one of the beautiful things about the web (and its ocean of infinite ineptitude) is that there’s always someone who’s even later to the party than you are.

    i was somewhat aware of joel’s book (having seen you reading it in DC once) but not of Shirky and Lopp. the crowning moment for me was this one, from Lopp’s blog:

    “The absence of temptation, the lack of distractions, the comfort of that lounge chair on your deck, sitting in the sun, drinking that coffee, and reading a book. This is advanced relaxation and the manner in which your brain consumes information in this setting is different than when you’re reading this article whilst dodging the incessant Twitter flood of iPhone updates.”

    As I read those words, I was (I kid you not) reading the blog on an iPhone while conducting extreme performance testing (aka sitting on a heated Toto toilet).

    So, while you may be late, there are many who are later still ;)

    PS I hate your captcha

  2. Rahul Pathak — July 25, 2007 @ 8:51 pm

    I’m really pissed off that I decided to read the comment on this post and am now forced to deal with the mental scarring that accompanies the picture of SA’s posterior performance testing.

    Thank you.

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