Jeff Atwood
Programmer and writer; co-founder of Stack Overflow and Discourse, and author of the Coding Horror blog, which he has written since 2004.
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What they believe
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FizzBuzz-style screening is needed because many people applying for programming jobs cannot program.
Apparently, FizzBuzz style screening is required to keep interviewers from wasting their time interviewing programmers who can’t program.
blog.codinghorror.comSaid 26 Feb 2007This on korrents
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Computers change but people do not, so understanding people is how you make better software
Why are updates to my reading list so rare? Because computers change a lot in 10 years, but people don't. To make better software, you need to understand how people work, and that is what the books I recommend tend to focus on.
blog.codinghorror.comSaid 2 Feb 2004This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 4 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
FizzBuzz-style screening is needed because many people applying for programming jobs cannot program.
Apparently, FizzBuzz style screening is required to keep interviewers from wasting their time interviewing programmers who can’t program.
Why Can't Programmers.. Program? Said 26 Feb 2007
It may be foolish to interview a programmer without looking at their code first.
Maybe it’s foolish to begin interviewing a programmer without looking at their code first.
Why Can't Programmers.. Program? Said 26 Feb 2007
Computers change but people do not, so understanding people is how you make better software
Why are updates to my reading list so rare? Because computers change a lot in 10 years, but people don't. To make better software, you need to understand how people work, and that is what the books I recommend tend to focus on.
Recommended Reading for Developers Said 2 Feb 2004
Show 1 more
The vast majority of software development projects fail
The vast majority of software development projects will fail: they will overrun their schedules, produce substandard results, or sometimes not even finish at all. This isn't an argument; it's a statistical fact.
Recommended Reading for Developers Said 2 Feb 2004
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 12 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Recommends Regular Expressions Cookbook
I may be a card carrying member of the "Keep It Simple Stupid" club, but I'm making a meteor sized exception for regular expressions. Written properly, they will save you a tremendous amount of time in string manipulation, and I've never run across a project where they didn't come in handy somewhere.
blog.codinghorror.com 2 Feb 2004
Recommends The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
You don't need to own all four books in the series unless you're a completist (or a masochist, I suppose), but the first two are essential.
blog.codinghorror.com 2 Feb 2004
What others say about The Visual Display of Quantitative Information →
Recommends The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master
This book reminds me a lot of Programming Pearls, but it's actually better, because it's less focused on code. Instead of worrying about code, the authors boiled down all the practical approaches that they've found to work in the real world into this one book.
blog.codinghorror.com 2 Feb 2004
What others say about The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master →
Show 9 more
Recommends Programming Pearls
Programming Pearls is the next best thing to working side by side with a master programmer for a year or so. It is the collective wisdom of many journeyman coders distilled into succinct, digestible columns.
blog.codinghorror.com 2 Feb 2004
Recommends The Inmates Are Running the Asylum
This is the book that introduced the world to the concept of personas: rather than thinking of users as an abstract, difficult-to-describe, amorphous group of people, personas instruct us to talk about specific users who have names, personalities, needs, and goals.
blog.codinghorror.com 2 Feb 2004
Loved About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design
It's a fantastically useful book; I've used whole chapters as guides for projects I worked on.
blog.codinghorror.com 2 Feb 2004
What others say about About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design →
Recommends The Design of Everyday Things
Designing software is difficult, to be sure, but designing a door is difficult too. The nuances of design extend into every object you touch, whether it's some hot new SQL engine, or a humble shoe.
blog.codinghorror.com 2 Feb 2004
Recommends Peopleware
If you have any legitimate aspirations to be a "Team Leader" in practice instead of in name only, you need to pick up a copy of this book.
blog.codinghorror.com 2 Feb 2004
Recommends Rapid Development
Rapid Development isn't about rapid development. It's about the reality of failure. The vast majority of software development projects will fail: they will overrun their schedules, produce substandard results, or sometimes not even finish at all.
blog.codinghorror.com 2 Feb 2004
Loved Don't Make Me Think
The single best book on usability I've ever read. The title says "web usability" but don't be fooled by its faux specificity. Steve Krug covers every important usability concept in this book, and covers it well.
blog.codinghorror.com 2 Feb 2004
Recommends The Mythical Man-Month
I challenge any developer to pick up a copy of The Mythical Man Month and not find this tale of a long-defunct OS, and the long-defunct team that developed it, startlingly relevant.
blog.codinghorror.com 2 Feb 2004
Recommends Code Complete 2
Steve McConnell's Code Complete 2 is the Joy of Cooking for software developers. Reading it means that you enjoy your work, you're serious about what you do, and you want to keep improving.
blog.codinghorror.com 2 Feb 2004
Where they publish
Blog blog.codinghorror.com His blog since 2004, where he publishes his recommended-reading list for developers.
Link verified 4 Sept 2026.
Mastodon @codinghorror@infosec.exchange Where he posts now.
Recent
- This is gonna be.. interesting. 19 Oct 2026
- chaos. control. chaos. control. chaos... control... 14 Oct 2026
- "Here's some backstory on the mechinterp people's origins researched by ChatGPT (not that little bitch Claude)" 13 Oct 2026
Show 17 more
- what is the cost of greed? 11 Oct 2026
- If you're looking for "critical piece of internet infrastructure that gets virtually no attention or financial support", take a gander at https://nwtime.org/donate/ -- I just donated what I could. 7 Oct 2026
- comparing these numbers with the first gilded age, how many robber barons were there? Specifically compare this statement with the conditions at the peak of the first gilded age: “The bottom half of billionaires controls about $3T, or ~14% of billionaire wealth. The top 10% controls about $11.6T, or ~53%. The top 1% alone controls about $5.2T” 6 Oct 2026
- No one should own a billion of anything. 5 Oct 2026
- Oh, you wanted unpopular? Let me show you what that word actually means. 4 Oct 2026
- Truth is, we have no middle class. It's just the rich.. and everyone else. Thanks, I fucking hate it. 30 Sept 2026 youtube.com
- Unusually wholesome and funny too 27 Sept 2026 tumblr.com
- Leo Laporte and I have a monthly video/audio show. "Off by One with Jeff Atwood". The next episode, #6 "HypnoCube Therapy Session" is freely available at 26 Sept 2026 youtube.com
- The true joy is helping others succeed, not playing "number go up", the stupidest fucking game ever. 26 Sept 2026
- Always. What does that mean. Forever. What does that mean. 25 Sept 2026 music.youtube.com
- USDA Replaces Food Stamps With One Giant Rutabaga 25 Sept 2026 theonion.com
- "but the rich pay all the taxes!" that's a delightful concept, but it's not true in practice. 25 Sept 2026 motherjones.com
- Fellow LEGO nerds help a novice out.. how can I get a turning handle on this mini-brick-safe? What part(s) would help here? 23 Sept 2026
- I make a point of feeding the crows near us because I want them as allies and I greatly fear them as enemies 22 Sept 2026
- "The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back. I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas." —John Maynard Keynes, T… 22 Sept 2026
- The three month period of writing Stay Gold, America nearly broke me. I'm not kidding. But it was all worth it, as I explain here. 22 Sept 2026 writethatblog.substack.com
- It is amazing what you can do if you build the right team, point them in the right direction, and get the hell out of their way 19 Sept 2026
Link verified 4 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
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