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My Book: Working Among Programmers
I wrote this book because there's so much ignorance about
programmers: who they are, how they think, and even what they do in a
typical day. Of course you know all these things because you live them
every day, but you'd be amazed how many other people are clueless: coaches,
therapists, counselors, family members, news reporters - almost everyone.
So why would you, a programmer, want to buy this? Well,
it might make a nice present for your significant other, your parents,
your shrink, or anyone else who really needs to understand you, your
job, and your aspirations, but just doesn't have the background.
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Ed Yourdon's Review
| In the 35 years since the
original publication of Gerald Weinberg’s The
Psychology of Computer Programming, much of the civilized world seems
to have forgotten that programming is a human activity,
and that the amazing software products and services we
rely on are created by people, who have their own likes
and dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, quirks, and idiosyncrasies.
Interestingly, IT professionals (programmers, software
engineers, and people with a variety of other technical
titles) are often advised to spend more time understanding
and empathizing with the non-technical people for whom
they build systems; but it’s rare that you hear non-technical
people being advised to spend more time understanding and
empathizing the geeky techno-nerds who actually do the
work of building such systems.
If this topic has come up in your
organization, or among your peers, then Bruce Taylor’s new book, Working
Among Programmers, is a must-read. It’s also a quick
read, a mere 150 pages of straightforward, non-technical
language; and each chapter has a summary section entitled “For
Those In A Hurry,” with half a dozen bullet points
capturing the salient points discussed in the chapter.
For technical people, the discussion
will seem obvious and familiar; but non-technical people
have probably never stopped to ask how programmers think,
what their self-image is like, how they feel about career
advancement, about managers (which, of course, should
be obvious to anyone who reads “Dilbert” cartoons), and about end-user “civilians” (no,
it’s not as bad as the attitude expressed by the
Nick Burns “computer guy” skit that Jimmy Fallon
used to play on old episodes of Saturday Night Live). And
all of these topics are contained in just one chapter of
Taylor’s book, entitled “About Programmers.”
There are other chapters about
organizational culture; the cast of characters in the
IT field (application programmers are not like system
programmers, and neither of those two categories are
similar to database designers, testers, network architects,
and others); the nature of a programmer’s
work; the nature of software engineering; and the trials
and tribulations of programmers.
If your own career doesn’t depend on successful
relationships with the programmers who work with you (or
for you), or if you only give simple assignments and projects
to your programmers, then maybe you don’t need this
book. But in most of the organizations that I visit, the
relationship between programmers and the rest of the world
is strained at best, and totally dysfunctional at worst;
and the projects being given to the programmers are becoming
increasingly complex and challenging. It certainly can’t
hurt to have a better understanding of what makes these
people tick; indeed, it may be the difference between success
and failure.
Looking at Bruce’s
technical resume, I was intrigued to see that he began
with a BA in English Literature, followed by an MS
in Computer Science, followed (some 27 years later)
by an MA in Community & Social
Psychology. His job history and list of technical skills
clearly demonstrates that he knows about the bits-and-bytes
world the geeks live in, but he’s also got the education
and training (including a personal and professional coaching
certificate) to understand what makes them tick.
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