I've been reading Eric Sink's collection of blog posts and articles (with additional commentary) in his recently published book "
The Business of Software" (APress) and I'm very pleased that these have been published this way. Though I have seen many of these online, I don't believe I have actually read too many of them all the way through. This is such a big problem with anything on-line because when you are online there is so much info coming at you and it's too hard to stay focused. So if something isn't a quick read, you think "okay, I'll read it later" and later never happens. Then it get's lost, buried in the past.
I don't like e-books. I even have a hard time printing lengthy materials (e.g. book chapters) out on paper and reading them. They are so darned unwieldy. I like a real book. I can sit with it at the breakfast table, curl up with it on a couch, read it easily on a plane and it's pretty portable (if it's not a thousand page MSPress book, that is).
So now I am truly getting to read Eric 's wonderful, thoughtful, and for me, right on the money, essays/articles. If you don't know Eric Sink, he is the founder and now partner in SourceGear, which produces the most popular 3rd party tool for Visual Studio source control. Though he is a geek with a CS degree, he spends most of his time running his business and this is the source of the wisdom he shares with us. I have to agree with Mike Gunderloy that the book title is a little off - since Eric's focus is small ISV's. But I go into the book knowing that.
I like to think that Eric and I are alike in many ways. Jack of all trades types, not quite enough patience to focus on one thing and become absolute experts at it, and a particular way of looking at things. A big big big difference is that Eric has a real gift for sorting out his thoughts and putting them into words - and generally entertaining ones at that. I am pretty intuitive, but have a hard time materializing my feelings. It makes it very difficult to think on my feet sometimes which is painfully obvious in situations like at Deeper in .NET last weekend when I was on a panel with Scott Hanselman and Bill Hatfield trying to answer questions like "do you think Smart Clients will disappear thanks to things like Ajax and Atlas". I know that my answer is "absolutely not" but I really need some time to gather my thoughts, sort them out and present them in a cohesive way. And with guys like Scott and Bill sitting there - who are very smart, quite opinionated and confident (with everything to back that up), there's really no time for me to dwell. So I was unusually quiet.
On a lot of levels, Eric does this for me - puts in to words what I have difficulty expressing. I agree with so much of what he says in these essays. I even recognize some things that I have also written about, such as the ridiculousness of referring to "we" when you are only a one-person company though he accedes that there are some cases where it makes sense.
Another thing that I really admire about Eric and his writing is that he recognizes the value of not only learning from your mistakes, but sharing that learning experience with others, as difficult as that may be, so that they too can learn from them. Running a company means that Eric's mistakes are a lot bigger and more educational (and more expensive) than my own. I seem to stick to programming problems and (not quite as publicly) my process of trying to become a more effective technical presenter. I read evals and listen to feedback that is not just "wow thanks great", and look for the "you suck because ...." (which of course makes me just want to bury my head in the sand forever) but if there is a because, then to me that's a great lesson and something I work hard to improve on.
Eric is a very easy going, smart and funny guy who does not take himself so seriously that he holds himself above the rest - and this comes across in all of his writing. It is extremely engaging and entertaining yet at the same time filled with wisdom. Though I am not an ISV or even a micro -ISV, and therefore much of what he writes about doesn't apply to me, my interest in how business works and Eric's way of looking at the world, have made every chapter that I have read so far (which I am not doing consecutively - just popping around) a pleasure and unlike most non-fiction books - a real page turner!
Eric's book is filled with smiley faces, just like his blog posts are. I imagine there was lengthy discussion whether or not to carry them through to the published book - is it a book or are they blog posts in a book? I'm still trying to decide how I feel about them in a book.
I am on the board of the Vermont Software Developer Alliance. There are a ton of ISVs in Vermont. I think they should all be reading this book and I will bring it to the next meeting - show and tell - no raffles - it's MINE.
Thanks to APress and Eric for getting these essays back in my face. I'm in Alabama at the moment and have about 6 hours of travelling ahead of me to get home and imagine that I will probably spend most of that time reading the rest of the book - and I'm looking forward to it.