Joel Spolsky

"This is a first-rate book by a first-rate group of scholars. It provides a clear distillation of some very powerful new concepts and integrates [them] into a practical general management framework that will help managers meet the challenges of the 21st century." -W. Carl Kester James R. Williston Professor of Business Management Harvard Business School. "The Portable MBA is an outstanding resource. Every prospective MBA student should read it to jump-start their course work; every practicing manager, even those with MBAs, would also profit greatly from time spent with this excellent book." -Dennis E. Logue, Steven Roth Professor of Management The Amos Tuck School, Dartmouth College. "An excellent launching pad for anybody interested in an overview of the state of business administration in the 1990s . . . an indispensable guide for the beginner and seasoned manager alike." -L. L. Marlantes, President and CEO The Rockefeller Group. "The Portable MBA will appeal to those who recognize that the tired old rules of business no longer apply in today's rapidly changing global environment. This book offers students and business professionals an up-to-date approach that integrates all the key functional areas of the business enterprise." -John D. Finnerty, PhD, Partner, Coopers & Lybrand LLP Professor of Finance, Fordham University. "[The Portable MBA] offers an interdisciplinary, succinct, and practical approach to tools, concepts, and emerging trends facing executives who compete in the global economy." -Barry D. Leskin National Head of Human Resources Ernst&Young, London. The Portable MBA, Third Edition offers you an opportunity to learn the cutting-edge business theory and practice now being taught at today's top MBA programs. Written by faculty members of the prestigious Darden School at the University of Virginia, and structured around that school's world-renowned general management program, this completely new edition reflects the most important current trends in MBA education, namely cross-functional management, leading from the middle, alliance management, and an understanding of global trade and investing. Like its predecessors, The Portable MBA, Third Edition delves into all the core material covered in the first year of a typical MBA program: marketing, economics, business ethics, technology, strategy, and human resources management to select a few. But here the authors take an integrated approach, highlighting concepts that cross functional lines and responsibility and provide an enterprise-wide perspective. In addition, numerous case studies, vignettes, and first-person accounts from managers and executives at leading companies create a richer understanding of business transformation. Finally, this updated version contains capstone material that highlights the challenges facing the twenty-first-century manager building customer value, creating new paradigms for managing in periods of turbulence, and managing technology. In the grand tradition of the internationally bestselling Portable MBA Series, The Portable MBA, Third Edition brings the insight and wisdom of some of the world's top business educators to the comfort of your favorite reading chair.

Selling Air is the first novel to capture the realism and riotousness of the software industry’s 1990s halcyon years of cool technology, rising stock options, high-flying IPOs, instant adolescent millionaires and crazed sales teams chasing the almighty number. It follows the exploits of two startups’ sales teams as they fuel their companies’ growth toward an eventual IPO. Selling Air does for the high tech sector what Po Bronson’s Bomdardier, Michael Lewis’ Liars Poker, and Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities did for the 1980s financial services industry. As the current economy emerges from its malaise, Selling Air serves as a reminder of past excesses and a warning about the consequences of irrational exuberance.

"Making the Technical Sale" explains the overall technical sales cycle, including the technology and adaptation cycle and ways to understand the progress of a sale. This accurate and thorough manual was written from the technical sales professional's point of view and anticipates the kind of problems unique to the technical sales field. "Making the Technical Sale" discusses why technical sales is different from general sales; details the full range of skills needed by technical sales professionals; illuminates the typical tasks a technical sales professional handles; and explores the role this person plays on the sales team. The book also addresses the need for honesty and ethical behavior in sales.

Offers insight into the relationships between developers and their leaders, showing how teams can better work together to develop software. Softcover.

An examination of Microsoft's reinvention under the leadership of CEO Steve Ballmer discusses the ways in which the company survived such challenges as a federal antitrust trial, the dot-com revolution, and a recession, relating how it implemented numerous successful changes to become the world's second most recognizable brand. 50,000 first printing.

Few books in computing have had as profound an influence on software management as Peopleware . The unique insight of this longtime best seller is that the major issues of software development are human, not technical. They’re not easy issues; but solve them, and you’ll maximize your chances of success. “Peopleware has long been one of my two favorite books on software engineering. Its underlying strength is its base of immense real experience, much of it quantified. Many, many varied projects have been reflected on and distilled; but what we are given is not just lifeless distillate, but vivid examples from which we share the authors’ inductions. Their premise is right: most software project problems are sociological, not technological. The insights on team jelling and work environment have changed my thinking and teaching. The third edition adds strength to strength.” — Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., Kenan Professor of Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Author of The Mythical Man-Month and The Design of Design “Peopleware is the one book that everyone who runs a software team needs to read and reread once a year. In the quarter century since the first edition appeared, it has become more important, not less, to think about the social and human issues in software develop¿ment. This is the only way we’re going to make more humane, productive workplaces. Buy it, read it, and keep a stock on hand in the office supply closet.” —Joel Spolsky, Co-founder, Stack Overflow “When a book about a field as volatile as software design and use extends to a third edition, you can be sure that the authors write of deep principle, of the fundamental causes for what we readers experience, and not of the surface that everyone recognizes. And to bring people, actual human beings, into the mix! How excellent. How rare. The authors have made this third edition, with its additions, entirely terrific.” —Lee Devin and Rob Austin, Co-authors of The Soul of Design and Artful Making For this third edition, the authors have added six new chapters and updated the text throughout, bringing it in line with today’s development environments and challenges. For example, the book now discusses pathologies of leadership that hadn’t previously been judged to be pathological; an evolving culture of meetings; hybrid teams made up of people from seemingly incompatible generations; and a growing awareness that some of our most common tools are more like anchors than propellers. Anyone who needs to manage a software project or software organization will find invaluable advice throughout the book.

The classic account of the early days of tech, named one of the 10 best business books of the year by Business Week: “Riveting, wry, and often wise.”—The Washington Post Jerry Kaplan had a dream: he would redefine the known universe (and get very rich) by creating a new kind of computer. All he needed was sixty million dollars, a few hundred employees, and a maniacal belief in his ability to win the Silicon Valley startup game. Kaplan, a well-known figure in the computer industry, founded GO Corporation in 1987, and for several years it was one of the hottest new ventures in the Valley. Startup tells the story of Kaplan's wild ride: how he assembled a brilliant but fractious team of engineers, software designers, and investors; pioneered the emerging market for hand-held computers operated with a pen instead of a keyboard; and careened from crisis to crisis without ever losing his passion for his revolutionary idea. Along the way, Kaplan vividly recreates his encounters with eccentric employees, risk-addicted venture capitalists, and industry giants such as Bill Gates and John Sculley. And no one—including Kaplan himself—is spared his sharp wit. “What separates Kaplan’s tale from other start-up stories is the insight he provides about dealing with two of America's largest computer companies—IBM and Microsoft…Readers interested in entrepreneurial adventurism will find Kaplan’s tale entertaining.”—Publishers Weekly “Kaplan tells it with novelistic style replete with races against the clock and sharp character sketches…An insider's well-written story of the death of a new machine.”—Kirkus Reviews “A winner.”—Wired

A former journalist shares his very personal and often harrowing tale of how he started his own Internet business, taking risks and enjoying the fruits of rebirth in both his personal and professional life.

The high-tech world is known for its overnight successes and its equally spectacular failures. It can be a rollercoaster business environment that keeps investment analysts on their toes and company executives scrambling simply to maintain their positions in the market. It's a wild ride and no one enjoys it more than Canada's Michael Cowpland. Brilliant innovator and iconoclastic businessman, Cowpland has made billions, has helped dozens of his employees become millionaires but has also seen his businesses collapse and his fortunes evaporate, apparently without regret. Cowpland is a born gambler, a man of excesses, both personal and professional, a maverick who seems to be addicted to highfliers and a flamboyant lifestyle that has made him and his young wife Marlen the closest thing to Hollywood that Ottawa has ever seen.

The phenomenal success of Bill Gates and his Microsoft Corporation hinges, above all, on an ability to look to the future. Not content with holding a bulging share of the market for software applications, nor with dominating the crucial operating systems business by virtue of its DOS and Windows programs, Microsoft is always looking to the future. And the future for Microsoft now goes by the name of Windows NT. A software innovation of the first order, NT could redefine the standards for computing throughout the world, into the next century. NT endows inexpensive personal computers with the capabilities of giant mainframes -- yet without sacrificing the inherent flexibility and appeal of PCs. Showstopper! is the inside story of this stunning breakthrough in computer technology. Stripping away myth after myth, this unprecedented tale lays bare the messy, wrenching reality of winning innovations. To date, America has dominated the global software industry through creating cutting-edge code and by depending on both the ingenuity of a few visionaries and the coordination of huge, costly teams of programmers and testers. Gates -- a managerial genius as well as a technical visionary -- promotes an atmosphere of controlled chaos at Microsoft, and the story of Windows NT perfectly reflects this ethos. The brain-child of David Cutler, a legendary programmer recruited by Gates in 1988, NT took five years and $150 million to complete. For much of that time, the massive program demanded the obsessive attention of more than 200 testers, writers and technicians. Focusing on Cutler's mercurial ability to inspire and lash his team, Showstopper! brilliantly portrays the human drama of this mammoth undertaking exposing the pressures, disappointments and ultimate triumph that emerge from a cauldron of constant deadlines, competition with peers and a perpetual war against the inevitable and ubiquitous bugs in the program -- among them the potentially lethal "showstopper." Gripping vivid and accessible, Showstopper! reveals the outsize personalities that stand behind great advances: the mavericks, the organizers, the fixers, the motivators. Even as they wrestle with forces that threaten to tear them apart, Cutler and his team feverishly hunt for

When he dazzled the literary establishment in March, 1995 with Bombardiers, a stunning debut novel that skewered greedy Wall Street bond traders and satirized the inner workings of high finance, readers were scrambling to buy futures on Po Bronson's career. Now, Bronson unleashes his talent (and fury) on Silicon Valley and rips the top off the computer industry, tracking the routes of power, exposing the crisscrossed wiring, and poking fun at its obsolete components. Lloyd Acheson's firm, Omega Logic, needs a next-generation chip to keep its stock price propped up. Hank Menzinger squandered his research lab's cash reserves in a failed IPO and needs Omega Logic's support to save his institution. But master chip designer Francis Benoit's last chip for Omega was dumbed-down by software, and he's vowed to never let it happen again. New at the research lab is Andy Caspar, a young engineer who dreams of becoming a legendary "ironman" -- one of the handful of engineers (like those behind Netscape, Apple, and Intel) whose technological breakthroughs have secured them a place in history. Andy begins work on a new project, not realizing the extent to which he's caught up in the power struggle of the older men. The story reveals the brutal, absurd side of the industry, as Andy pushes forth with his dream but is betrayed at every turn.

A fascinating look inside the success of Linux creator Linus Torvalds reveals an "accidental" innovator to helped create the open source software movement.

Furnishes a gripping account of the people who executed Bill Gate's plan to establish a monopoly in the 1s and 0s of digital code by creating a new kind of business orgamism, and how they are dealing with the limits of Microsoft's growth and their own mid-life crises. 50,000 first printing.

Larry Ellison started the high-flying tech company Oracle with $1,200 in 1977 and turned it into a billion-dollar Silicon Valley giant. If Bill Gates is the tech world's nerd king, Ellison is its Warren Beatty: racing yachts, buying jets, and romancing beautiful women. His rise to fame and fortune is a tale of entrepreneurial brilliance, ruthless tactics, and a constant stream of half-truths and outright fabrications for which the man and his company are notorious. Investigative reporter Mike Wilson, with access to Ellison himself and more than 125 of his friends, enemies, and former Oracle employees, has created an eye-opening, utterly fascinating portrayal of a Silicon Valley success story ... filled with the stuff that dreams and cultural icons are made of.

One of the world's great designers shares his vision of "the fundamental principles of great and meaningful design", that's "even more relevant today than it was when first published" (Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO). Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door. The fault, argues this ingenious -- even liberating -- book, lies not in ourselves, but in product design that ignores the needs of users and the principles of cognitive psychology. The problems range from ambiguous and hidden controls to arbitrary relationships between controls and functions, coupled with a lack of feedback or other assistance and unreasonable demands on memorization. The Design of Everyday Things shows that good, usable design is possible. The rules are simple: make things visible, exploit natural relationships that couple function and control, and make intelligent use of constraints. The goal: guide the user effortlessly to the right action on the right control at the right time. The Design of Everyday Things is a powerful primer on how -- and why -- some products satisfy customers while others only frustrate them.

Imagine, at a terrifyingly aggressive rate, everything you regularly use is being equipped with computer technology. Think about your phone, cameras, cars-everything-being automated and programmed by people who in their rush to accept the many benefits of the silicon chip, have abdicated their responsibility to make these products easy to use. The Inmates Are Running the Asylum argues that the business executives who make the decisions to develop these products are not the ones in control of the technology used to create them. Insightful and entertaining, The Inmates Are Running the Asylum uses the author's experiences in corporate America to illustrate how talented people continuously design bad software-based products and why we need technology to work the way average people think. Somewhere out there is a happy medium that makes these types of products both user and bottom-line friendly; this book discusses why we need to quickly find that medium.

"The computer world is like an intellectual Wild West, in which you can shoot anyone you wish with your ideas, if you're willing to risk the consequences. " --from Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age, by Paul Graham We are living in the computer age, in a world increasingly designed and engineered by computer programmers and software designers, by people who call themselves hackers. Who are these people, what motivates them, and why should you care? Consider these facts: Everything around us is turning into computers. Your typewriter is gone, replaced by a computer. Your phone has turned into a computer. So has your camera. Soon your TV will. Your car was not only designed on computers, but has more processing power in it than a room-sized mainframe did in 1970. Letters, encyclopedias, newspapers, and even your local store are being replaced by the Internet. Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age, by Paul Graham, explains this world and the motivations of the people who occupy it. In clear, thoughtful prose that draws on illuminating historical examples, Graham takes readers on an unflinching exploration into what he calls "an intellectual Wild West." The ideas discussed in this book will have a powerful and lasting impact on how we think, how we work, how we develop technology, and how we live. Topics include the importance of beauty in software design, how to make wealth, heresy and free speech, the programming language renaissance, the open-source movement, digital design, internet startups, and more.

The practice of building software is a “new kid on the block” technology. Though it may not seem this way for those who have been in the field for most of their careers, in the overall scheme of professions, software builders are relative “newbies.” In the short history of the software field, a lot of facts have been identified, and a lot of fallacies promulgated. Those facts and fallacies are what this book is about. There’s a problem with those facts–and, as you might imagine, those fallacies. Many of these fundamentally important facts are learned by a software engineer, but over the short lifespan of the software field, all too many of them have been forgotten. While reading Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering, you may experience moments of “Oh, yes, I had forgotten that,” alongside some “Is that really true?” thoughts. The author of this book doesn’t shy away from controversy. In fact, each of the facts and fallacies is accompanied by a discussion of whatever controversy envelops it. You may find yourself agreeing with a lot of the facts and fallacies, yet emotionally disturbed by a few of them! Whether you agree or disagree, you will learn why the author has been called “the premier curmudgeon of software practice.” These facts and fallacies are fundamental to the software building field–forget or neglect them at your peril!