Joel on Software
by Joel Spolsky · first published 2004
65% recommend35% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Story-driven essays on building software and working in teams, drawn from Spolsky's blog. Credited with fostering a professional attitude and holding up well over time; suits developers, founders, and product people.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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…Design of the Unix Operating System - Bach The Unix Programming Environment - Kernighan, Pike The Art of Unix Programming - Raymond Godel, Escher, Bach - Hofstadter Metamagical Themas - Hofstadter Joel on Software - Spolsky Code Complete - McConneli The Mythical Man-Month - Brooks No Silver Bullet - Brooks The Long Tail - Anderson The Art of the Start - Kawasaki
on “ASK HN: Hacker Bibles” ↗…simply so you can have a sense of what building software actually entails (Dynamics of Software Development is another older book that has aged somewhat well --- as have all of Joel Spolsky's posts on Joel on Software; in fact, I'd probably start there). But while this stuff will help you understand the work that's happening on your team, it probably won't do much to help you with the mindset of your team members.…
on “Ask HN: Best resources for non-technical founders to understand hacker mindset?” ↗…series of bullet points. He tells stories, and I for one always find stories to be more useful than adages taken out of context. Sure, they take more time to read, but it's time well-spent. I'll take Joel on Software over Rework any day.
on “A Summary of "Joel on Software"” ↗Joel Spolsky's 2003 Joel On Software piece: "The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!)" https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2003/10/08/the-absolute-minim...
on “Unicode in five minutes (2013)” ↗Joel on Software by Joel Spolsky Code Complete by McConnell
on “Ask HN: What are the most fundamental books on computer science?” ↗Learning Perl. C Programming Language. UNIX Programming Environment. Programming in Haskell. Code Complete. Practice of Programming. Cathedral and the Bazaar. Open Sources. Hackers and Painters. Joel on Software. Coders at Work. Just for Fun. SICP seems to be really well written so far, but it's not the kind of book you're going to read in one sitting.
on “Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?” ↗…building things in general: 1) Hackers & Painters - PG 2) Smart & Get Things Done - Joel Spolsky 3) Rework - Jason Fried 4) Getting Real - Jason Fried 5) Founders at Work - Jessica Livingston 6) Joel on Software - Joel Spolsky These are by far some of my favorites.
on “Ask HN: Books that change your way of thinking?” ↗…well. In general books, I can think of Strunk and White, On Writing (by Stephen King). But some examples of good writing about programming could also help: The Best Software Writing (edited by Spolsky) Joel on Software (the best articles from his blog) Steve Yegge's blog posts (others might disagree but I think he is an excellent writer). Paul Graham's essays raganwald's old blog - http://weblog.raganwald.com/ James…
on “Ask HN: What are the best programming books for someone in prison? ” ↗It's been a few years, but I got a lot out of Joel on Software by Joel Spolsky. It helped me adopt a professional attitude toward how I built software and worked in teams. If you want to save some money, most of the book is taken from posts on his blog.
on “Ask HN: Books that improved your career?” ↗Joel on Software - practically everything he's written while properly blogging has stood the test of time.
on “Ask HN: Favorite, timeless tech article/book” ↗…had great experiences with reading books, including older ones. Some older titles I have really enjoyed are: Mythical Man Month Code Complete II The Psychology of Computer Programming Joel On Software Rapid Development
on “Ask HN: Are older programming books useful?” ↗"Strategy Letter III: Let Me Go Back!", collected in Joel Spolsky's Joel on Software covers just this.
on “What I learned unsubscribing from 22 newspapers” ↗Crebs on security - I think he is the Matt Levine of the cyber security. Joel Spolsky's blog (Joel on Software) was also very pleasant read on software back in the day
on “Why so few Matt Levines?” ↗…people seconded the complexity of a browser, I must add one more take and bring up one of my all time favorite blog posts, back from 2000 (I am old), when browsers were already complex, Joel Spolsky's Joel On Software episode "Things You Should Never Do, Part I" https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-... His first example was Netscape browser v6.0, and why there wasn't a v5.0 after v4.0, why it…
on “Scaling long-running autonomous coding” ↗…course: [https://www.coursera.org/learn/ai-for-everyone](https://www.... Growth (Data Science, etc.) - Hacking Growth (Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown) Graph Theory Product - Inspired (Marty Cagan) - Joel on Software (Joel Spolsky) Customer Loyalty/Customer Success - Delivering Happiness (Tony Hsieh) - Setting the Table (Danny Meyer) Finding a Startup Job - Entering StartupLand (Jeffrey Bussgang) CIO as ICP -…
on “Ask HN: What books helped you in your entrepreneurship journey?” ↗