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.
Human Software 272 - Impatient, Needy Writers
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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 structural edits and encouraged me to crack on with the revisions. Now, as I review the generous beta reader feedback, I've decided to hire him again and get on with the final round of copy editing. And so, all of a sudden, this is the final push, my friends! To celebrate, I just launched the Leanpub landing page here: https://leanpub.com/humansoftware/ Please do me a favour and go there and tell me what you think of it. Is the synopsis clear and interesting? How's the snippet? Useful? Do you want to read more? Any feedback gratefully received! You can simply reply to this email! So a month or so of copy editing to go and by mid to late July I am aiming to have the e-book complete and ready to go. I've hired a cover designer to help me out too. While I quite like my AI generated thing, it's probably just a temporary placeholder. I am committed to using real art and real people to create the cover. Watch this space for more updates and closer to publication date I'll be sharing more about the artwork and the layout and where you can buy it. And if my life wasn't busy enough with the final edits, I'm also turning Human Software into a screenplay. Read more about it below! Until next time, have a great Sunday. Human Software: The ScreenplayPublished on May 15, 2025 I like writing. I’ve enjoyed writing Human Software. However waiting for feedback can be nerve-wracking, so over the last few weeks I decided to channel some of that nervous energy into another endeavour. As I wrapped up my last edits, I discovered a screenwriting course that was just starting the next week, and I enrolled.… Read More »Human Software: The Screenplay
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The Human Software
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.
I hope you've had a good summer and are re-energised and looking forward to lowering yourself back into the tepid pool of work for the remainder of the year. Here's a view from a charming street market in Aix-en-Provence. Shortly afterwards, I made it to the Paul Cezanne exhibit at the Museé Granet where I was inspired to think about new ideas for the cover of HUMAN SOFTWARE. Sweltering on a sunny day in Provence The big news is, HUMAN SOFTWARE has a release date! e-pub will be available on...
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...