The Psychology of Computer Programming

By Gerald M. Weinberg,

Book cover of The Psychology of Computer Programming

Book description

This landmark 1971 classic is reprinted with a new preface, chapter-by-chapter commentary, and straight-from-the-heart observations on topics that affect the professional life of programmers.

Long regarded as one of the first books to pioneer a people-oriented approach to computing, The Psychology of Computer Programming endures as a penetrating analysis of…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Psychology of Computer Programming as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I read the first edition of this book when I was in college after a disastrous “team” project. (We weren’t a team—and we didn’t finish the project.) I was just about ready to quit Computer Science. Then I read this book. 

Programming—and all product development—is a human activity. How do people learn to work together, to collaborate, to create teams, and to release useful work? Those are the topics in this book. From egoless programming to personalities such as the Mad Bomber, Weinberg addresses how we could collaborate, from small efforts to large. 

Every time I read (or re-read) a…

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