Media praise for Team Geek
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"I've been working with engineers for over 30 years, and in that time I've learned that engineering is as much about people as it is science and technology, but most engineers put little or no effort into understanding how to work with others. If you want to be more effective and efficient at creating and innovating, then this book is for you."
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"Software Development is a team sport. If you want to become a top performer in the sport, there are hundreds of good books that tell you how to work on your individual skills as a software developer, and a few on how to be a good manager. This book breaks new ground by setting out all the key lessons for you as a software developer to learn how to work with your teammates, and how to be a good teammate. The field has needed a book like this for a long time, and finally it has arrived."
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"This delicious book speaks to your inner geek! Even if you do not consider yourself a geek, the advice is worth the time to read anyway."
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"Ben and Fitz have assembled an amazing collection of patterns and anti-patterns for software development teams to consider. This book is for anyone struggling with understanding how to make such a team more productive - for the code wranglers themselves, for their managers, and for everyone in orbit around them. It puts down on paper many of the things innate to great open source developers. I wish I'd had this book years ago."
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"If you're trying to build a team that is focused on shipping great software, then you need to read this book. Ben and Fitz do a great job of translating touchy-feely subjects like humility, respect, and trust into tactical suggestions that even the most skeptical developer can appreciate."
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"This is a wonderful book. It deals with the hardest problem in computer programming, which is dealing with other computer programmers :-). I'll be buying copies for all Samba Team members."
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"You might have heard the aphorism '10X programmer,' describing the fact that top programmers are an order of magnitude more productive than average programmers. Making a big impact requires experience and powerful technical chops, but also empathy for your co-workers and users. No amount of smarts or knowledge can make up for a lack of the latter, but this book will help you hone your soft skills and leave an even bigger dent in the world."
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"Fitz and Ben take a simple creed -- Humility Respect and Trust -- and cultivate that foundation with copious examples and stories. The experience and wisdom they share will help software engineers who work in teams -- most of us -- be more effective and productive."
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"Software is made of people. A well run team, using the principles outlined in Team Geek, can out-think, out-code, and out-ship any individual hacker. Coder, educate thyself!"
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"Team Geek is a gem of a book, in which Ben and Fitz share their very sensible philosophy of how programmers can best contribute to a good team. We are lucky that this important field is finally opened up for discussion with such warmth and humor. I wish that 21-year-old me had both a copy of the book and the good sense to take it to heart."
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"Ben and Fitz say what I've been practicing but could never quite put in words."
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"Ben and Fitz come not to praise the myth of the lone programmer, but to bury it. They preside over its wake in a series of essays designed to teach right-brained engineers how to hack the most complex system they'll ever encounter: people in a group. Team Geek shows that the most humane software is made by the best-functioning human teams -- and how to achieve both."
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"This is a great book about the sociology of software development, with an emphasis on open source software and large corporations. the section on managing up and dealing with politics is essential reading for any new engineer in a corporate environment. I would recommend it to any engineer regardless of where he worked! This is the first book I’ve seen that covers office politics in an easily accessible fashion for engineers.The stories and anecdotes and practical tips on “How do you work with this difficult person?” are gold! You literally cannot buy this anywhere."
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"Team Geek is How to Win Friends and Influence People for programmers. It's full of clear and actionable advice on how to be more happy, productive and effective on your technical team. Excellent and needed."
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"This book is a blueprint for building a healthy software development culture. It should be required reading for engineering managers, technical leaders, and even non-technical executives who need to understand how team dynamics affect retention of top engineering talent and the quality of software they produce."
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"The skill of writing software will help you stay employed but if you combine that with the ability to work well with others, and you can change the world. This book isn't just about how you can be a better programmer. It's about how to be awesome."
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"Team Geek is an insightful exploration of building successful teams and products, taken from years of tackling difficult developer pains and issues that we all experience in our careers. The jovial approach to overcoming both engineering and human issues on a technical team delivers an engaging foundation text that should be a staple of every engineer's library."
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"I've been blogging Ben & Fitz's talks at conferences for years, because so few people address the social side of working with geeks. I'm excited to read the collective wisdom of their talks in one convenient book and not have to chase them around the country anymore."
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"Get this book and read it."
-- , Seattle Area System Administrators Guild Seattle
"A solid, useful handbook that can help you become a better, more productive team player and, if necessary or if you desire, also help you rise to the challenge of leading a software-development team."
-- , Sagecreek Productions
"I’d recommend this book to any developer, which wants to progress in their career and move up the ladder but know what may come up during your journey. Knowing you’re not alone, and others have the same issues you encounter makes things seem so much better."
-- , BigMadKev.com
"Team Geek is a great read, and a practical one at that. It's also an opportunity to help refine your startup's story, pitches to the media, and the brand's voice you are trying to acheive in your collective evolution. Make Team Geek a group read."
-- , www.alanweinkrantz.com
"Bottom line, this is a short, enjoyable read. I feel like I received valuable lessons that I can apply to my life and career. "
-- , Amazon.com
"If you want to succeed in the software development universe, this book gives you all the tools you need to handle the social aspects of the environment. Knowing your algorithms and sharpening your programming chops gives you the potential to be a good engineer - tacking on the people skills you will learn in this book can make you a great one."
-- , Amazon.com
"This is *the* book on software development human issues (of which there are too few) that I will recommend to any software engineer. The reasons are simple: it's short, it covers a lot of ground, it's solid advice, and it's highly readable. This book is an easy way to spread sensible defaults to software engineers that just want to get up to speed quickly, and then anxiously go back to creating great software. I'm sure that if every engineer practiced its teachings, the world would be a noticably better place. "
-- , Amazon.com
"Team Geek is well written with effective cartoon illustrations. My advice is for every working team to buy several."
-- , Amazon.com
"While it may not be a "sexy" read in terms of learning a new coding trick or hardware setting, Team Geek may be the one read that keeps you sane and happy over the life of your career. This is a book that I'd strongly recommended."
-- , Duffbert's Random Musings
"There are lots of things to like about this particular book. Its content is practical and full of useful insights, It is the right length (less than 200 pages); it consists of just six chapters; and it has been written in an easy to digest style, thus making it a quick read."
-- , Left-Brain Bookstore
"Brian and Ben, through their personal experience in open source projects and their current job at Google have shared with us the social skills every developer need to have nowadays to succeed. They have shown us all the social skills you need to build as a person, team and finally how to sneak into a company's gears" Full Review >
-- , horalass.blogspot.com
"The books is a collection of good tips, a way to handle difficult situations and create an awesome team. Some people think there is nothing new here, but sometimes we need to read this key points again to start notice than we already know how to handle stuff and improve our team. I recommend this book." Full Review >
-- , evidenciacreativa.com
"One of the most important aspects of creating great software is working effectively with a team, and that team includes not only other software developers, but also the extended development organisation, the corporate structure, and not forgetting customers. The aim of this book is to help developers be more effective… " Full Review >
-- , cerys.wordpress.com
"This book is great. It is full of practical useful tips, a lot of insights..." Full Review >
-- , cichykacik.wordpress.com/
"Team Geek is a book tackling the subject of people skills in software engineering." Full Review >
-- , www.developmentality.wordpress.com
"History shows those who can collaborate most effectively prosper the most and no matter how good you are at your chosen craft it pays to be skilled in working well with others. 'Team Geek' "“ authored by two senior members of Google's engineering team is an excellent, highly readable and useful guide for software professionals "“ on collaboration, leadership and team work. You don't have to be a geek to read this book but it may help"¦" Full Review >
-- , andrewarmour.com/
"Brian Fitzpatrick leads Google’s Data Liberation Front and Transparency Engineering teams.Ben Collins-Sussman is one of the founding developers of SVN and now manages the engeneering team for the Google Affiliate Network. Both have a lot of experience with Open Source Projects. The Book has a clearly defined goal – to… " Full Review >
-- , blog.afry.de
""People are basically a giant pile of intermittent bugs." With this simple humorous statement, Fitz and Ben perfectly capture the attitude that leads us to need a book like "Team Geek". It's not the only reason we need a book like this, but it's an important one, considering our target audience: otherwise high-functioning engineers that need a little help figuring out how to navigate the apparently volatile social landscape." Full Review >
-- , blog.founddrama.net
