Three years ago, I started a podcast without much idea of its future. Before that, I'd started writing, wandering through automation, programming techniques, infrastructure, DevOps, and thoughts about management, leadership, and how companies are organised. Where was I going? While I'd read a few books, it was clear that I was searching for something. Was I just talking for the sake of it? It sometimes certainly seemed that way. And then, about eighteen months ago, I started writing a novel. A novel about people who build and support software systems. Maybe, I thought, I just couldn't find a better way to express myself? And suddenly, a lot of the topics I had talked about, I'd read about, I'd written about came floating to the surface, where they could be arranged into a story. I hope it's a good one. I've just finished the final major edits and sent it off for some more feedback from my editor. Publication edges closer. So now I have to start marketing it. As a starting point, here are some of the themes the book covers:
I'm really excited to share more with you over the coming weeks. Have a great break over the Easter weekend, whether you celebrate it or not! |
Software systems rule our world. My regular newsletter explores the human factors that make software engineering so unique, so difficult, so important and all consuming.
Just like "Parts Unlimited" in "The Phoenix Project" - a good tech story needs an interesting company to base its story upon. So over the last week I put together a little corporate website for Gerbach Inc. On it you can meet some of the leadership team and find out a little more about what Gerbach does and where it does business. The Gerbach Logo Gerbach's head office is based in Sandport in the UK. Sandport is a fictional town based on Sandwich in Kent - my hometown. Since the 1950s there...
I've spent the last two months (a short trip to Iceland aside) working on the next set of edits for HUMAN SOFTWARE. In all honesty, I thought I'd just be doing a little bit of light word work when it came to this round but as it transpired, I ended up changing about a third of the content. A few chapters were discarded, and numerous rewrites were made in the name of pacing and tension building. What I hope we've ended up with is a more intriguing and interesting journey for Beth and Chrissie...
Writers are terribly impatient. We are so fragile, we crave attention all the time. So, for us, writing into a vacuum and not getting anything back is the worst. We will happily take anything including "wow, it really sucked" or "how could you be so old and so feeble at writing?" At this point in the journey of Human Software, I'm so desperate for feedback, I'm even willing to pay for it! So that's what I did. In January, I hired an editor, and he's been great. He helped me with the...