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 Software 274 - Meet the Team
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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. 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 was a large firm based in Sandwich - Pfizer. Pfizer supports and supported the town in many ways economically until it gradually started to scale back operations. Over decades it's been both an economic lifeline and an economic worry for local residents. In places like Sandwich, businesses rely upon the money that particulalry international firms bring to the area - richer people from foreign places spend money in small towns. I've based some of the events in Human Software on what happens to those who rely on this money when it's suddenly threatened. Another thing happened this week, I received the edits back from my editor! I need to go through those over the next month, complete proofreading and then upload it to leanpub. We're almost there folks! As always, have a great Sunday and if I don't speak to you again before the end of August, have a great vacation period. You can browse the Gerbach website here. Cheers No one Knows How These Systems Are Supposed to WorkPublished on July 24, 2025 I’m on a call where it’s obvious that no one knows how to fix this system, because no one is confident in their understanding of it. How many times have you been on that call? When everyone is standing back, allowing someone to come forward naturally. So rather than someone steps forward, everyone else (audibly)… Read More »No one Knows How These Systems Are Supposed to Work
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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.
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...
A few weeks before Christmas I asked ChatGPT a series of questions along the lines of "ok, so what next?" I was out of ideas. I was tired. My freelance contract was coming to an end so I was already looking for a new one. Launching Human Software had been exhilarating but exhausting. I'd burned the candle at both ends on social media plus done some podcasts (a few of which are yet to see the light of day) and also put myself in front of bookshops and chased reviews and talked talked talked...
REBRAND ALERT!! So it's been a while since I renamed this newsletter but I feel it's due a slight sidestep following the launch of my book. So welcome to episode 286 overall, but episode #1 of The Human Engineer. Despite me constantly rename this newsletter, over these years the subject has never really varied too much. I talk about software systems and how they relate to human systems. I find my work increasingly focusses on the human side of the this divide - because it is a divide right?...