Episode 238 | Gerald Weinberg - Human Tools

Guest: Jerry Weinberg @JerryWeinberg Jerry Weinberg talks with Dave Rael about historical computing, humans as tools, transition, and understanding people Gerald M. Weinberg (Jerry) has always been interested in helping smart people be happy and productive. To that end, he has published books on human behavior, including Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method, The Psychology of Computer Programming, Perfect Software and Other Fallacies, and the 4-volume General Systems Series. He has also written several books on teamwork and leadership including Becoming a Technical Leader, Agile Impressions, Do You Want to Be a (better) Manager, The Secrets of Consulting, More Secrets of Consulting, and the multi-volume Quality Software series. He incorporates his knowledge of science, engineering, and human behavior into all of writing and consulting work (with writers, hi-tech researchers, and software engineers). He writes novels about such people—all about how his brilliant protagonists produce quality work and learn to be happy. Chapters: 0:45 - Dave introduces the show and Jerry Weinberg1:17 - Writing - both books and software - the good and bad of tools5:03 - The ambition to have tools that can correct and create programs and mind-reading programs10:33 - The desire to replace humans, including programmers, and the futility of prediction14:19 - Changes over time in program and data input and output20:21 - Mistakes, learning, reviews, and humility27:57 - The qualities of good project managers and the virtue of knowing how to use our most important tools - people33:23 - Human desires, the reality of the possible, and expectations36:11 - Helping people understand what they want44:13 - The appeal of programming and the challenge of human interaction49:39 - Jerry's relationship with Frederick Brooks54:10 - The importance of interaction with the people who use what you make and eating your own dog food62:28 - Institutional memory and inter-generational interaction Resources: Jerry's First Appearance on Developer On Fire The Women of Power - Jerry's site for his novels Amazon's Gerald M. Weinberg Page Humanized Input: Techniques for Reliable Keyed Input - Tom Gilb, Gerald M. Weinberg The Tale of the Three Brothers from Harry Potter Frederick Brooks The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist - Frederick P. Brooks Jr. IBM System/360 Digicus (Abacus + Digital Calculator) The Rosetta Stone The Dance - Tony Arata IBM 7030 Stretch Ken Iverson The Lone Ranger Intro Jerry's book recommendation: Jerry's top 3 tips for delivering more value: