Probably Random

Release It!

Release It!, Michael T. Nygard

A stunningly good book!  I really wish I’d read this book earlier.  If you are responsible for developing any kind of web system that needs to be up 24/7 then you must read this.  The book is full of  useful design patterns and anti-patterns, and I must admit the number of times I thought, ‘yup, trying to fix one of those problems right now’!
My only complaint is that the examples are all Java related, and I develop C# systems, even still the lessons, concepts and patterns are cross platform (some is a bit specific).

If it’s not a course book then it should be! and if it’s not then it should be the first book you read before trying to build a real enterprise level web system.

Mind Hacks

Mind Hacks, Tom Stafford, Matt Webb

To honest I was a little disappointed with this book.

Possibly down to my expectation rather than the book itself.  I was hoping to learn some techniques to improve my memory and speed of thinking but that’s not what this is about.  There are 90 odd explanations of ‘phenomena’ from blind spots (both physical and mental) through explanations of why thinking about exercise is better than not doing any at all… Quite a lot of it isn’t new it’s a collection of other peoples work (okay so a lot of books are but when you’ve seen a lot of it already elsewhere it makes it a lot less interesting, although it is quicker to read because you don’t have to fire up  a browser and watch the videos!).

All very interesting but it wasn’t what I was expecting (perhaps my expectations had been anchored too high!).  If you are interested in the brain from a biology and psychology lesson point of view then it is very interesting and explains a lot of detail and gives places to look for even more information so you can deep dive on a subject too.

The Creative Habit, learn it and use it for life

The Creative Habit, Learn it and use it for life, Twyla Tharp

This really does show you a way to make being creative a part of your life.  Initially I was worried that his might be a little too dance orientated, there are references to it (she’s a choreographer and dancer) but you don’t need to know about dance it’s just a way of explaining the concepts and that all makes sense.  There is no short cut to follow these steps and you will be creative, it’s pointers and help to get you started and then to show at different points what may trip you up an dhow to avoid it.

There are many concepts and explanations of other people and their processes.    I like the idea of creating boxes for projects so that you an collect together all the information and resources in one place, but then look back on those later and remember what was the aim.

I liked her explanation of spine, that’s helped me with a couple of ideas I’ve had going round my head for years but somehow there was something missing from them.

One things I must say is that you should do all the exercises, don’t just read them… do them!

I really enjoyed reading this and  I’ll be eading it again if I feel I need a little shove.  One thing which did come through and is something which seems to be a theme is just do it! Get on with your creative (entrepreneurial) endeavour, and have a ‘team’ of people who you know will give honest feedback on it to keep you on the straight and narrow.

97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know

97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know

When I bought this I was thinking it would help me design new systems… It won’t.  But… it provides amazing insight into what the role and the actual job of being a software architect is.  Which I actually found a lot more useful.  It was a bit odd to see people I’d worked with in there (especially as I’ve worked on code and systems they’ve designed, I guess those experiences must have taught them a few lessons!)

A very interesting book with many perspectives, but it won’t tell you how to architect software, it will give you many insights into the job of software architect.

Rocket Surgery Made Easy

Rocket Surgery Made Easy, Steve Krug

If you design anything used by people and you’ve never done any user testing then you must read this! It sets out a simple way to get started on the road to user testing.

I have done some user testing over the years both as facilitator and as observer, so a lot of the book isn’t ‘new’, however there is always more to learn and it’s always good to get other peoples insights and ideas, so it was still extremely useful.

The book is a quick and simple read (Krug’s aim is to make it short enough to read on a flight) , it has the same ease of access as Don’t make me think, and whilst I now want to run off and do more testing, I didn’t feel quite as ‘changed’ at the end of reading it as I did with Don’t make me think.  Perhaps I felt more connection with Don’t make me think as I read the second edition and the ‘new’ chapters in it were the same concepts we’d just published some research papers on so I felt a real connection to it.

(* co-naturality, the same idea can be thought up by different people across the globe at the same time, it doesn’t belong to anyone,  and especially if you are researching the same topic the fact that two sets of researchers came to the same conclusion just adds weight to the idea.)