Joel did a nice cut and paste job selecting the best writing about software he could find and published it in dead tree form. If you google these articles, they are all found on blogs and such, so there's no need to drag your ass to amazon for a drop of wisdom. I was making my way through the list, when I had quite the unusual reaction to one of the pieces. Paul Graham writes about Great Hackers, about half way through his article he says "To drive design, a manager must be the most demanding user of a company's products." When I read this, I literally said "yes, yes, YES!!" Rarely do I see anything put clearly and perfectly accurately like that. The hammer striking the nail in the exact center. I react that way, because that's how I've always felt about design. As a user I think about problems I face as a user, as a coder I want to solve those problems. It takes both to solve them, though, it also takes input from a lot more people to solve a problem for more than one person, but this is the very core truism that underpins the whole science of design, at least to me.
truth
January 22nd, 2006
:: random entries in this category ::
Sounds logical...
"yes, yes, YES!!"
Hmm, you really like coding don't you? :P
You draw that conclusion based on me reading a book about or just saying a few words? :P
A bit of both - reading the book and having that particular response!