Taking Time for Appreciation: Jerry Weinberg

No matter where we are in our careers, we are influenced by other people. Sometimes the people who teach us do so consciously, one-on-one; we call these mentors. Others have a wider impact. We call them leaders.

I could probably write a whole blog post asking you, “Which books most influenced your programming or IT career?” Any maybe, one day, I will. But there’s no doubt that my Top 5 would include Jerry Weinberg’s Secrets of Consulting, a book that that helped me get past programmer-think (in which all is logic and code) to explore the nature of giving advice for pay. In a series of easy-to-read anecdotes, he helped me get my own consulting practice off the ground in the late 80s, by teaching me how to deal with difficult clients, what to do when the client wants more than I thought I had agreed to, and other business issues that didn’t come naturally, at least not to me. I’ve interviewed him on a few occasions, such as The Unfulfilled Project, and we’ve had a few spirited conversations in which Jerry has gently shaken my assumptions.

However, I’m far from the only person to be influenced by Jerry Weinberg, who’s written books and articles on topics that range from computer systems and programming to education, problem solving, and writing. And, in a move that’s remarkable for our “what have you innovated for me lately” industry, Dorset House recently published, The Gift of Time: Essays in Honor of Gerald M. Weinberg on his 75th Birthday. You may want to take a look at it — even if you haven’t encountered Jerry before — for two reasons. First, the Who’s Who of contributors both shares useful lessons for software developers (I’ll get to those in a moment). And also because it’s a good thing, every so often, to acknowledge how much we have learned from other people… and thus to contemplate the ways in which we influence the people around us.

Jeez, that sounds so self-conscious. Would you listen better if I said: This is fun, thoughtful reading?

Because it is, at least in summary. These are not fannish love letters from some of the top names in our industry (such as James Bach, Esther Derby, and Tim Lister). Most are standalone long-ish articles on topics that can help us do our jobs better, which just-so-happen to be inspired by Jerry. As with any collection of essays (or short stories), some will appeal more than others. A few didn’t hold my interest, and I skipped ahead — but the good ones make the book worth the purchase price.

My favorite probably is Tim Lister’s essay, “The Consultant’s Consultant,” who shared a consulting situation that was all too familiar to one I recently experienced (on the user side of the table). Lister’s client had a big IT project that had been divided into three releases, spread out over a year or two. But the users “unreasonably” insisted on non-showstopper features being included in Release 1. When Lister researched the reasons why, it turned out that the corporate culture put all emphasis and staffing on Release 1, then less and less priority on Releases 2 and 3. “They didn’t believe that their Release 2 was coming any time soon, and they believed Release 3 was fiction,” Lister writes. As a result, users fought to get as much into Release 1 as they could. Lister didn’t find a magic bullet to solve the problem (I don’t want you disappointed, looking for an answer that isn’t there) but I liked his analysis of the problem and how/why a developer or consultant might find and address it.

I also enjoyed the anecdotal interplay in James Bach’s story about his software testing exercise using playing cards, and how Jerry continually pushed the assumptions and rules. (“‘There are four cards,’ he replied with comic indignation. Then he pointed at a napkin on the table. ‘I call that a card. . . . It looks like a card to me. It’s made of paper. It’s flat.'”) Jerry opened himself to learning about potential variables and thus, says Bach, “He was practicing the first responsibility of a tester.”

I’ve also long admired Esther Derby’s sensible advice for IT managers; as an editor, I’ve enthusiastically assigned her articles like Stop Demotivating Me!. For A Gift of Time, she wrote about congruent feedback, sharing advice about how to give feedback to the people you work with. Certainly, she was inspired by Jerry (who told her, “If you can tell a coworker that he has BO and he feels you’ve given him a gift, you can offer feedback about any situation”) but Esther’s advice is very much her own — and, as I’ve come to expect, thoroughly worthwhile.

Depending on your background, your current itch at work, or your temperament, you might be more engaged by different essays, such as Johanna Rothman’s “Writing is the One Surefire Way to Avoid Writer’s Block” or Naomi Karten’s “The Wisdom and Value of Experiential Learning.” But I do expect you’ll like at least a few of these as much as I did. End result: This is a book worth reading, even if you’ve never heard of Jerry Weinberg.