About Me

I’m Jeff Atwood. I live in Alameda, CA with my partner, two cats, one three children, and a whole lot of computers. I was weaned as a software developer on various implementations of Microsoft BASIC in the 1980s, starting with my first microcomputer, the Texas Instruments TI-99/4a. I continued on the PC with Visual Basic 3.0 and Windows 3.1 in the early 1990s, although I also spent significant time writing Pascal code in the first versions of Delphi. I am now quite comfortable in VB.NET or C#, despite the evils of case sensitivity, but overall I prefer the highest level language of them all... the one you're reading now.
I consider myself a reasonably experienced Windows web software developer with a particular interest in the human side of software development, as represented in my recommended developer reading list – computers are fascinating machines, but they’re mostly a reflection of the people using them. In the art of software development, studying code isn’t enough; you have to study the people behind the software, too.
This blog has been proudly hosted on the official Ghost blog hosting service since 2014, and of course runs the excellent open source Ghost blogging software.
Mostly for selfish reasons. I needed a way to keep track of software development over time – whatever I am thinking about or working on. I research things I find interesting, then document my research with a public blog post, which I can easily find and refer to later. Hopefully other people will find these posts helpful, relevant, or interesting. I firmly believe that blogs are a two way conversation, so I welcome email and comments – as long as they’re on topic, more or less.
I’ve done a number of talks, interviews, and appearances. I don’t tend to rebroadcast those on my blog, but they’re easily findable on the internet.
It’s a sidebar image from the Steve McConnell book Code Complete, used to illustrate dangerous code samples:
Code Complete is my all-time favorite programming book, and this particular icon from the book left a lasting impression on me. I think every practicing software developer has stared down more than a few Coding Horrors of their own creation at one point or another. I asked before I started (which is unusual for me), and Steve was kind enough to let me to use the image and the name for my blog.
Unfortunately, no. But you can enter Falken’s maze if you dare, and some friends created some cool stuff that might interest you. 💛
Indoor enthusiast. Co-founder of Stack Overflow, Discourse, and staygold.us. Disclaimer: I have no idea what I'm talking about. Let's be kind to each other. Find me https://infosec.exchange/@codinghorror
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Yesterday, I received this email as a response to You Can't Vibe Code Love. It's such a remarkable and powerful statement that I asked permission to share it here, in its entirety, with personal information redacted: Hey Jeff, Hope you and your family are doing well.
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