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Life and Death in the World of Always-On Software

Human Software follows the lives of two women competing against themselves, each other, and the realities of tech work, ambition, and survival against a backdrop of global uncertainty and corporate greed.

Why?

In 2010, billionaire Marc Andreessen argued that “Software is eating the world” and kicked off an investment frenzy that directly led to the increased dominance of software in all of our lives. Whether it’s through our smartphones, our televisions, our dishwashers, or our central heating, software is everywhere and controlled by a small group who essentially define how we live our lives.

People Matter

But what about the people who build and maintain this software? What happens when something goes badly wrong? Who is responsible and who is on the end of the phone?

Human Software Concept Cover #2

Themes

Touching on themes of globalisation, how we rationalise change, what community is and the impact of burnout and mental health in the workplace. Exploring the disconnect between the ideals of modern software development and the human realities of building and maintaining complex systems. In the 21st century, can our human systems cope with the demands of our software systems?

Inspiration

I wouldn’t have written this book without books like “The Phoenix Project” and “The Unicorn Project” existing. In some ways, though, I wanted to write Human Software as a reaction to those books. While they accurately capture what it’s like to work in IT and software engineering in a modern firm, none of us who work in the industry often see ‘digital transformations’ succeed smoothly. Real life is messier and more complicated, more brutal, and I wanted to represent that through characters such as Beth, Chrissie, Peter and Dominic.

The Blog

Here’s where I post updates about what’s happening in the world of Human Software.