Joel on Software

2000/03/18

More on sabbaticals... - my first article! A bit about what I'm doing on sabbatical and why programmers need to take a year off every now and then.

Coming soon: a discussion of management styles in high-brainpower places. Silicon Valley has a very different style than New York, and frankly, New York's style is going to destroy a lot of good companies.

Jared and I both just read Charles Ferguson's brilliant book, High St@kes, No Prisoners. This is the story of how he founded Vermeer Software (which created FrontPage) and sold it to Microsoft. As Jared says, "you can really feel his intelligence coming off the page." Ferguson is really, really smart, and he really, really understands the software industry in a way that I've never seen in one of these books. He's the only one who really understood how badly Netscape was being run; he's the only one who's willing to say that technical companies run by non-technical CEOs are a disaster waiting to happen; and he just GETS IT. Anyway, even though he had a terribly tense time creating a company, reading this book really made me want to start one myself!

I also loved Jon Katz's book Geeks. Most of the geeks I've known are middle class nerdy kids who got great grades and went on to ivy league colleges where they were appreciated for their nerdiness, but I also know quite a few people who's lives are surprisingly close to the heros of this book.

College students: my company has paid summer internships in New York City, including free housing, free lunch, and the chance to develop software people will really use, with great mentors on interesting projects. Don't miss this chance of a lifetime. We only have a few spaces and they always go fast, so apply today.

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You’re reading Joel on Software, stuffed with years and years of completely raving mad articles about software development, managing software teams, designing user interfaces, running successful software companies, and rubber duckies.

About the author.

I’m Joel Spolsky, founder of Fog Creek Software, a New York company that proves that you can treat programmers well and still be highly profitable. Programmers get private offices, free lunch, and work 40 hours a week. Customers only pay for software if they’re delighted. We make FogBugz, an enlightened project management system designed to help great teams develop brilliant software, and Fog Creek Copilot, which makes remote desktop access easy.