Final Thoughts on Coders at Work
I finished reading Coders at Work about a week ago. Truly a great book as others have also said. I was surprised by some of the things I read in the interview with Donald Knuth. He is such an icon, and his books are really intense, and as such, I think I expected something (someone?) different. But, he seems quite approachable, down to earth, and of course very interesting as well. A couple great parts stood out in Knuth's interview.
When he was asked about the reading of his books and how challenging they can be (due to the math involved, etc.), he responded, "I sometimes wonder if I can read them..." How awesome is that?! Later on in the same answer, he says, ..."and I write it down and put it in the book so that I don't have to have it all in my head." It's nice to know he doesn't necessarily have his books memorized.
In another section, when asked about a technique he's using and whether it'd be useful to others, he answers, "I have no idea. I'm not sure how it would work if I was in a team of 50 people..." To me, that's refreshing in this day and age when everyone is so adamant about the methodology or process they use to develop software being the one right way, etc. One way does not work for everyone. I've seen this getting a bit out of hand in the Ruby community at times. There can be a fine line between being very passionate about a technique, and preaching it or, trying to cram it down everyone else's throat as THE way to do it. I think ideas hold a lot more weight when you can be excited in showing someone something, and then let them absorb it and come to the same realization themselves (or not - even if they don't, they'll probably have more respect for it working for you, instead of being completely turned off).
Lots of other good bits. One final bit about the book in general that surprised me personally, is that I generally stay away from history. I just don't generally find it that interesting, and in the software and compute world, often find it not pertinent to work I'm doing. But this book presented history in a truly enjoyable way. It has motivated me several times to look into various topics. I'm currently on a Clojure kick (as I'm motivated to re-learn LISP, as well as see more about functional programming in general (thanks Armstrong and Jones)); and I plan to crack open the Knuth books shortly as well (to date I've been one of those folks who owns them, but they just sit on my shelf). Listening to various luminaries talk about the non-trivial nature of them, as well as Knuth himself, simply makes them feel more approachable.
And, I should have a bit more reading time, since I managed to fracture my ankle and tear some ligaments on the 26th while trail running. So, I'm doing a lot of couch surfing these days.
