The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 3 (of 5)

Joel on Software Book Club

Joel,

Cool thing you started this. Are you going to have a separate page for this? Could you include all the other books you have reviewed like Critical Chain, Four Days with Dr. Deming, etc?

Thanks,

Prakash S
Wednesday, October 15, 2003

Shouldn't he have a deadline so that everyone can know when everyone else is assumed to have read it and people can start discussing it?

www.MarkTAW.com
Wednesday, October 15, 2003

guessing, it would be the end of the month!

Prakash S
Wednesday, October 15, 2003

(Sorta-kinda completely off topic, but what the hey)

Having driven an old car with the floor-switch high beams, I can answer that question really easily - the floor switch (it wasn't even a pedal, just this round metal thing) was a monumental pain in the behind. It got stiff with grit & dirt, slippery when wet, and just generally sucked.

Chris Tavares
Wednesday, October 15, 2003

About the book club idea:
Good idea, especially if it would be possible to recommend books for the "Book of the month" title, discuss in a separate forum (as mentioned above), vote for "Book of the year", competetions with prizes, etc.
But then again, these things can be found in other forums, on Amazon, and many other places, so maybe Joel should just stick with recommending a book once a month, and we could then discuss it in the good old JoS forum...?

About the floor-switch high beams:
The floor-switch may have sucked (never tried it), but it cannot have sucked more than not using high beams at all. If it had sucked more than not using them, people just could have ignored them and the floor-switch, and thus be better of.
So they didn't actually suck before something better was available.
And that's the thing about design that sucks: Early versions often deliver _something_ to get the job done, and later versions might deliver improvements to that. If you've got all the time in the world to design the thing, by all means do it! But in reality, people rush into your office at 5-minutes-to-deadline, and tell you to add a high beams switch, so that's what you do, and history will probably tell that your version 1 switch sucked.

Martin A. Boegelund
Wednesday, October 15, 2003

"the floor switch (it wasn't even a pedal, just this round metal thing) was a monumental pain in the behind"

Uh... I think you were supposed to use your foot, and keep your behind on the seat.

Wednesday, October 15, 2003

I really like the book of the month club idea. Especially with deadlines and discussions. I'm in! However, is Joel getting money, credits, whatever for suggesting the books? I noticed the link http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400040507/joelonsoftware/ref%3Dnosim/102-2589808-0110567

Not that I necessarily care. Just curious.

shiggins
Wednesday, October 15, 2003

OK. Scarp my last stupid question (I'm too tired). What exactly is an affiliate program?

shiggins
Wednesday, October 15, 2003

Ugh! Scarp should be Scrap

shiggins
Wednesday, October 15, 2003

shiggins:

"Affiliate program" means that if someone clicks on the link from Joel's site and then buys the book, Amazon pays him a small percentage.

Joe
http://www.joegrossberg.com

Joe Grossberg
Wednesday, October 15, 2003

Thanks Joe. I just bought the book. I can't help myself...I'm addicted to books (and beer) :)

shiggins
Wednesday, October 15, 2003

About the affiliate program:

I doubt he makes much $$$ off it ... probably much less than the cost of hosting joelonsoftware.com. So, in my book, he deserves it. If you want the $$$, join the affliate program and get a website.

I did this at http://www.csis.gvsu.edu/~heusserm but I only got around to reviewing one book ... :-)

regards,

Matt H.
Wednesday, October 15, 2003

> I only got around to reviewing one book ... :-) <

And you're not Joel, so you'll have a lot less click through traffic.

I don't think the book club should have a seperate forum. That's just ANOTHER place to check, and like his NY forum, it will probably lay largely stagnant. Unless there's such a high level of traffic here about it that's (a) unrelated to the JoS forum, and (b) bugs everyone else it should stay here.

After all, the book club is really just another way of generating discussion, so why segment that discussion off? Especially when the book is on topic for the forum.

Be sure to be polite and do the (spoilers) thing when you post a question about whodoneit.

www.MarkTAW.com
Wednesday, October 15, 2003