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1. Great book. A must read.
   Great book. A must read for beginner developers.

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2. A nice weekend read.
   The concepts inside the book can look like trivial, but the book is well written and you understand that there is nothing incredible or impossible in writing and keeping your code base in a good shape.

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3. Excellent and readable look at software FUNDAMENTALS
   This book ROCKS! Compulsively readable, excellent prose, extremely insightful, and yet very simple to understand. You won’t find a better look at the *fundamental* principles underlying software and software design anywhere. And it applies regardless of the language you use—this book will still be useful in 100 years. (A bold claim, I know. Read the book and you’ll see why I say that.)
   This book isn’t about math, or computer science. It’s about the practice of software development itself, and how *humans* fit into that (or how they fail to fit). The effects of software design decisions on humans, what it takes to become an excellent developer, what are the real principles underlying debugging anything, how to resurrect a dying codebase—and not just technically, but practically: what are the technical principles that let you accomplish this without being stopped dead by management priorities or bureaucracies?
   Having read much of the material on the author’s blog, I’m additionally fascinated with how smoothly this book is arranged. I doubt most people would guess that the chapters were not written in just the sequence they’re printed in; the choices made in organizing the material show an incisive grasp not only of software but of pedagogy.
   In case you’re on the fence about getting this book, I will point to my two favorite freely available articles that are also in this book. (There are other parts of the book I like even better that *aren’t* freely available, but these two are.) Amazon won’t let me post links, so go to “code simplicity dot com” and append “/post/the-fundamental-philosophy-of-debugging/” to the URL for one article, and “/post/make-it-never-come-back/” for the other.
   If I am ever a manager of a software development team, this book will be number one on the required reading list for the developers working under me.

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4. Below Average
   I was expecting a more modern view of the programming profession. There is more to building a system than coding (in Python). There is architecture, system analysis and design, programming design and TESTING. The Understanding Software booklet is short on detailed content. (i.e. meat, real world examples, and more illustrations would have gotten to 4 or 5 stars).

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5. Good points but lacks Google examples
   This book had some great points and Bugzilla anecdotes but it lacked Google anecdotes. Where are examples from Youtube on Xbox and other Google projects in the author’s background. I would have liked to hear how Google manages code quality.

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6. Insightful, helpful and user-friendly
   Have You ever wondered what software development is about? Is it more about technology or about people, or about the process itself?
   Max Kanat-Alexander opens your mind to taking a look at the software development process from a new perspective.
   Insightful, helpful and user-friendly

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7. Not at all what I expected
   Imagine a book where the print is big, the pages are short in layout, and every other page is a chapter. This would’ve made a better blog post than a $30 book.

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8. Five Stars
   Incisive, helpful and vital information for any programmer.

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9. Un livre de “sagesse logicielle”, dans la lignée des Robert Martin, très bien structuré et plein de bon sens. L’anglais est facile à lire. Ce livre vous redonnera foi dans le développement, en vous donnant des tas de conseils sur le savoir-faire et le savoir-être en tant qu’ingénieur développement logiciel. Très agréable à lire.

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