Reviews and Comments

Maybe this book was exciting when it came out, but I wouldn't recommend it at this time. Science and technology have moved on and many of the ideas he references are dated. Much of his exposition rests on the now discredited Triune Brain theory. But some parts don't even need new science to contradict them, they contradict themselves! For example, he speculates that sleep is an adaptation of mammals to avoid nocturnal predators... Which are themselves mammals and also sleep, they just sleep during the day. How does that make sense? He even admits that modern mammals which are also nocturnal predators (ie cats) do sleep a lot, but regards it as a vestigial trait and not contradictory to his theory. What?
The tie ins with mythology are neat but not explored in much depth. In fact that is a general theme of this work; refer to some neat thing for a paragraph then drop it. Discuss a real study for a paragraph then idle speculation for three or four more. The napkin calculations are also hilarious. He tries to design a study to measure the bandwidth of the human visual processing system in a pretty bananas way, measures it (n=1) then declares victory and starts comparing it to things.

A series of biting essays on startup culture. As someone who has worked in startups, albeit in Boston rather than SV it's funny to compare notes. Out here we don't quite have that alternate universe vibe. Did I mention it was funny? Wiener has a razor sharp wit and great taste in punch lines. She has also mastered brevity-the book reads fast and there is no excess, no filler.

This is a classic computer security tale. The first time I read it, I was a novice programmer and knew absolutely nothing about security, so I found the hinjinks thrilling. Years later, and knowing (dare I say) a thing or two, the idea of someone trying admin passwords against everything they can find connected to the network is the type of thing everyone can expect to see in a log file from time to time, and providers most certainly don't leave default admin passwords (if you enable password login at all!) So it's more a historical artifact of an era just before the internet had fully connecte every network, and when big institutional computers where still exciting compared to PCs or Phones. As a record of that era, especially one founded on contemporary notes rather than fond recollection, is a very nice.

The bulk of the book is about making phone traces, logging activity, and the technical details of the chase. The author's initial suspicion of intelligence types slowly changes as he becomes a security researcher himself, and it's a neat introspective journey. We also get small snapshots of the culture of the era and the area which add some human touches to an otherwise very technical story.

Ullman gets it. There are tons of great writers who do a decent job, but most don't really have the feel for what it means to be a software engineer and are seduced by easy narratives or lurid details. Many engieneers would prefer stick to the purely technical, and when they do deign to write in a more narrative fashon, you get warm glowing nostalga or breathless pride. Ullman is a writer and an engineer but she falls into nither trap. She gets what it means to be an engineer but also what it means to live in the society that she has had a hand in changing. We get to see the forest and the trees, both in crisp relief. If there is one book every software engineer should read, this is it. More important than Pragmatic Programmer or Clean Code, more telling than Hackers.