Exploring the human factors that make software engineering so unique, so difficult, so important and all consuming. Learning to work with the systems, not against them.
The Human Engineer 291 - New Beginnings
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It's amazing how dependent we are on paperwork even in 2026. I spent a few hours this week printing forms, signing them, scanning them, uploading them. Automation has brought us so far ... and yet. I tried to use Claude to help me design some shelves above the washing machine and honestly it was easier just to use my own head. AI is sometimes an exhausting tool to use. One of those forms was for a new job — starting in a couple of weeks. More on that soon. The bigger news: Human Software has a new cover and a new home online. After honest reflection — and some equally honest reader feedback, I realised I wrote the right book but marketed it wrong. The cover, the subtitle, the positioning all pointed at the wrong shelf. I've fixed that. New cover, new website, new blurb. It finally looks like the book it actually is. Before I share this more widely on Friday — here's the new look. I've also written about why I wrote a novel instead of another business book. This is probably the most honest thing I've put down about Human Software and why it exists. You can read that blog post here. And if you haven't picked up a copy yet — now might be the moment. Get your copy here. Normal transmission resumes shortly. Coming up in future editions: notes from book two (which is taking shape), some thoughts on a recent ADHD assessment that's been quietly revelatory, and more on the new job once I've actually started it. Have a great Sunday! |
The Human Engineer
Exploring the human factors that make software engineering so unique, so difficult, so important and all consuming. Learning to work with the systems, not against them.
Conference season hit Amsterdam last month with the global juggernaut that is Kubecon but I eschewed the noise of that particular enormous techie event and went instead to the writer-friendly event "Stories Unfold" at Amsterdam's OBA theatre. This was a very pleasant evening giving a selection of self-published and traditionally published authors a stage to share the stories behind their books and also highlighted a new compilation of short stories. The audience was very much made up of...
Twenty years ago I was living in Taunton in the South-West of the UK and travelling by car to work in Bournemouth to work for a big, famous American investment bank as a technical consultant. I'd been hired to be part of a helpdesk which was on-call to supply first line support to portfolio managers who were booking trades for their clients. But me being a techie, I was there to bring technical expertise and solutions to a team that was struggling. I aced the assignment. Providing a technical...
January is over. The longest month! I managed to get a break in Chamonix, nominally to do some skiing, but for the most part it was marvelling at the beauty of it all. The world around us. So, I'm in the alps taking a break from the uncertainty of the present and facing my own mortality on the gentlest slopes near Mont Blanc. It's wonderful being up there with friends, I feel very lucky, and I also don't feel any real need to push myself like I would have done in the older days. I went out...