Joel on Software

I knew from reading Joel's blog that he had published a book containing the best articles of his website. I actually hadn't intended to get the book, since I'd already read much of it on Joel's site and figured I'd just read the rest online anyway. But Joel's father Bernard Spolsky gave me a copy, and I'm glad he did. It's easy to forget that reading on paper is still leaps and bounds more satisfying than reading from a computer screen. Sitting down with this book of essays that are otherwise available online helped remind me. Thanks, Bernard! (Hey, John, when do I get my E Ink?)

I really enjoyed reading this book, in large part because I found myself disagreeing with Joel about as much as I agreed with him. It's much more interesting to find one's opinions challenged than to find them reiterated. Particularly when it's done by somebody as insightful as Joel. I have to admit that much of our differences in opinion probably boil down to the fact that we work in different worlds: Joel works on Windows producing closed-source shrink-wrapped software for the mass market, whereas I work in Linux doing consulting on open source software for individual clients. But as Joel points out in Five Worlds, we should still be able to learn from each other. I've certainly enjoyed learning from him, and I recommend this book to anyone who builds software professionally. As such, I passed my copy on to my business partner and when he's done with it we'll see how much he [dis]agreeed with.