Jef Claes

On software and life

07 Jun 2011

Book review: More Joel on Software

I was lucky to pick up a copy of More Joel on Software for only 5 euros at a bookfest last week. Turns out the book ships pretty cheap on Amazon as well.

More Joel on Software was written by Joel Spolsky, already a legend for launching The Stack Exchange Network with Jeff Atwood. Although it’s hard to not know him, I admittedly hadn’t read a lot of his material so far. Starting my professional career in late 2008, the Spolsky writing high days were mostly over.

More Joel on Software is the second blook which bundles the best of the digital content of the Joel on Software blog into a dead tree. Although you can find every part of the book on Spolsky’s blog, it was well worth the money. I love how he has, next to amusing anecdotes, a very opinionated view on our industry which really challenges you to broaden your thinking. His writing is also extremely enjoyable, I think he must be one of the best writers in our field.

Here is, for your convenience, the content of the book with links to the original articles online. Might be useful if you are the owner of one of those reading devices.

Part 1 - Managing People

Part 2 - Advice to Potential Programmers

Part 3 - The Impact of Design

Part 4 - Managing Large Projects

Part 5 - Programming Advice

Part 6 - Starting a Software Business

Part 7 - Running a Software Business

Part 8 - Releasing Software

Part 9 - Revising Software