Book Review: Dreaming In Code

I received Dreaming in Code as a gift some time ago from an "old" work colleague and friend in Washington DC. I've finally had a chance to finish it and since reading it I've placed it in the "holy tomes" section of my personal library. This section is devoted to books that are essential reads, another such book is The Pragmatic Programmer

The Horrible Truth

This isn't a novel, at least not in the traditional sense, it's also not a fanciful account of programmers wet dreams

, it's a cold hard account of just about everything that can go wrong in software development. And the scariest thing of all it's a true story!

Scott Rosenberg tells the story of the development of what was supposed to be "The mother of all personal Information Managers" Chandler, and how the man with the vision of the future, Mitch Kapor together with OSAF set out to try and revolutionize the way we work with information.

Can we Learn?

Everything we read and experience helps us learn, we are also supposed to learn by our mistakes so why is software development as Scott Rosenberg writes "Hard to make well. Hard to deliver on time. Hard to use."

By writing the book in the perspective that he did, by shining a bright and unbiased light of day into the inner workings of software development, the scary reality of what happened at OSAF was bared to the world.

I can honestly say that I certainly sat up and paid attention to every tragic turn of events. The only hope is that I can apply the lessons learned from watching the train wreck that Chandler appeared to be unfold before my eyes.