A Nitrous Crouton

Yesterday was a refreshing cool overcast day in Southern California with periodic rain. It was very enjoyable. Today was bright, sunny, clear and still a bit crisp. That was also nice. What wasn’t nice is I think the sudden weather change was largely to blame for the killer sinus headache that greeted me as I woke this morning. This resulted in a frustrating loss of productivity in a morning that ended up being limited to a couple critical tasks and being fetal. While the pain subsided over the course of the afternoon, the end result is drained lethargy.

Now that I’m back in start-up mode (ironic considering it’s for a company I started back in 2001), I’ve been looking for weapons to combat lethargy, discouragement and drive inspiration. Books are a prime source, and I’ve just finished reading two recent releases that fall into the appropriate category.

The first, Founders at Work: Stories of Startups Early Days has a pretty self-explanatory title. It didn’t turn out to be especially inspirational, or terribly educational, but it was interesting. The stories and anecdotes ranged wildly both in length and quality (measured by ‘interestingness’), but it was well worth the read. As I mentioned, I didn’t really run across anything that was new, although the concept that companies that do well usually achieve it by capitalizing on unexpected opportunities is now further cemented into my mind. Founders at Work is well edited, and recommended if you like reading about the tech industry. I think I was slightly disappointed that the book didn’t spark any epiphanies, but I was probably expecting too much.

The second, Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software is probably an odd choice for inspiration. The book is an exceptional creation, it details the pain, agony, struggle, and sheer difficulty of creating serious computer software, but is written in such a fashion that someone outside the computer industry can read and understand it. It manages this without coming across as pedestrian or condescending, which is quite a feat of masterful writing. The technical, social and political dynamics of large-scale software development are displayed in all their ugly glory. One of the interesting aspects is how the project, Chandler, is largely free of the financial pressures that plague much of commercial software development. With that dimension removed, the others can be seen that much more clearly. The end result is a mesmerizing look at how even if you build a team of really smart, really experienced people, making software is hard. In time I want to be developing software even more complex than Chandler, so it is a case study well taken to heart and oddly inspirational. I suspect I will force some people to read it at some point, because it is a tremendously accessible look at an intimidating and seemingly incomprehensible world from the outside.