software development concepts
What was Microsoft’s original mission? In 1975, Gates and Allen form a partnership called Microsoft. Like most startups, Microsoft begins small, but has a huge vision – a computer on every desktop and in every home. The existential crisis facing Microsoft is that they achieved their mission years ago, at
programming languages
There’s no magic bullet for hiring programmers. But I can share advice on a few techniques that I’ve seen work, that I’ve written about here and personally tried out over the years. 1. First, pass a few simple “Hello World” online tests. I know it sounds crazy,
programming languages
I am no longer a part of Stack Exchange. I still have much literal and figurative stock in the success of Stack Exchange, of course, but as of March 1st I will no longer be part of the day to day operations of the company, or the Stack Exchange sites,
programming languages
Between founding Stack Overflow (and later, running Stack Exchange) and having a child, I haven’t had much time to blog about the holidays for a few years now. The last Gifts for Geeks I did was in 2008. Those recommendations are still as valid as ever, but I just
programming languages
When Joel Spolsky and I set out to design the Stack Exchange Q&A engine in 2008 – then known as Stack Overflow – we borrowed liberally and unapologetically from any online system that we felt worked. Some of our notable influences included: * Reddit and Digg voting * Xbox 360 achievements * Wikipedia
communication skills
I have a confession to make: in a way, I founded Stack Overflow to trick my fellow programmers. Before you trot out the pitchforks and torches, let me explain. Over the last 6 years, I’ve come to believe deeply in the idea that becoming a great programmer has very
programming languages
As a guy who spends most of his day typing words on a screen, it’s hard for me to take touch computing seriously. I love my iPhone 4, and smartphones are the ultimate utility belt item, but attempting to compose any kind of text on the thing is absolutely
programming languages
When it comes to running Stack Overflow, the company, I take all my business advice from one person, and one person alone: Curtis Armstrong. More specifically, Curtis Armstrong as Charles De Mar from the 1985 absurdist teen comedy classic, Better Off Dead. When asked for advice on how to ski
programming languages
As far as I’m concerned, you can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much screen space. By “screen,” I mean not just large monitors, but multiple large monitors. I’ve been evangelizing multiple monitors since the dark days of Windows Millennium Edition: * Multiple Monitors and Productivity
programming languages
I find it difficult to believe, but the reports keep pouring in via Twitter and email: many candidates who show up for programming job interviews can’t program. At all. Consider this recent email from Mike Lin: The article Why Can’t Programmers... Program? changed the way I did interviews.
programming languages
I apologize for the scarcity of updates lately. There have been two things in the way: 1. Continuing fallout from International Backup Awareness Day, which meant all updates to Coding Horror from that point onward were hand-edited text files. Which, believe me, isn’t nearly as sexy as it… uh…
programming languages
Let’s face it: we all write bad code. But not every programmer does something about the bad code they’re polluting the world with, day in and day out. There’s a whole universe of possibilities: * Follow the instructions on the paint can * Become a software apprentice * Get a