[Read Part One of this interview]

[Read Part Two of this interview]

[Buy the book]

Bob's back again with another installment of patient answers to my rather long-winded questions. I think I need to go to interviewing school or something. In retrospect it seems that it might be a bit easier on the interviewee if the questions are kept to something shorter than book length, but I think Bob's been doing a fine job. Getting to do this has been a real pleasure.

Also, Coding Slave BOF news: The Coding Slave BOF will definitely be taking place on Sunday night (5/23) at 7:00 PM. The location, though, has yet to be determined. Because this isn't an “official“ BOF, we don't have room at the convention center. However, I'm sure we could find something nearby - any native San Dieagans out there with any suggestions? I think a cafe would be best, but that's just one big-nosed man's opinion. Whatever happens, I want to get the location sorted out no later than Wednesday - I'm tiring of sounding like a dufus when answering email about the fete and having to say, “Yeah, it'll happen - I just don't know where.“

Rory:

Speaking of characters, you did a fantastic job of drawing up several personas, each of which I would consider to be an archetypal developer. Early on, we meet The H1-B, The Rolex Consultant, The Whiz Kid, The Hobbyist, and so on. Something I liked is that each of these characters, aside from making it possible for nearly any coder on the planet to relate to the book, had real depth. You got me inside the mind of a schemer, a bastard, someone who lived for binary, someone who simply had to live with it, and others. Are all of these people you? Or is this the result of observations you've made while adding entries to your resume?

Bob:

"Are all these people you?"

Give me a minute to have an executive conference with the Management Team in my head.

OK, we discussed your question thoroughly and here is our answer: No.

However, the characters in the book are somewhere. I think one of the nice things about professing or pretending to be a writer is that you get to spend a lot of time observing the world around you and trying to make some sense of it or some fun out of it. Without question I have seen a lot of software and I know a lot of software people. The characters in the book Ajita, Katherine, Albert, Walt, Frank, Rafael, Manfred, Connie and the Project Manager are composites of people that I know in some capacity. But, these characters are not exact replicas of the existing model. They are more archetypical characters within a cultural landscape.

I will let you in on a secret. There really is a Manfred. However, the Manfred in Coding Slave is a DBA. The real Manfred is an applications developer who lives in Vienna.

I sort of took a liking to Manfred when I met him. It was my first time to Vienna and I was paying really close attention to everything. A friend of mine introduced me to him. When last I saw him, Manfred had very long hair, was in his late twenties, early thirties maybe. He did a lot of VB programming and resold computers on the side to make ends meet. He lived in an apartment right out the movie, The Third Man, a very cool Joseph Cotton/Orson Welles movie that takes place in postwar Vienna. I recommend the movie. I also recommend that people remember that Vienna is in Austria and that Austria borders on what used to be Yugoslavia. When I was in Austria, a friend took me to a road that separates Austria from what was to become Slovenia. My friend told me that during the Yugoslavian breakup the road was lined with Slovenian tanks and Austrian tanks. The tanks were facing one another ready for action. I was surprised; I did not know that Austria had tanks. But it does. So does Slovenia. And the really interesting thing was that for a while nobody in Austria knew how far the Slovenians would go in their zeal for liberation from the shackles of communism. There is some good eating in Austria and Slovenian food is very fatty, something one needs to develop a taste for. No telling what a hungry Slovenian will do when faced with the prospect of getting some of that exquisite Austrian pastry.

When I was in Lubiana, the capital of Slovenia, I got to see a church right in the center of town that was being reconstructed due to taking a few too many canon blasts. People forget that only around ten years ago Slovenia was in a state of war, that there was real fighting going on in the streets and more than an atrocity or two being committed in the name of independence, particularly in Bosnia where ethnic cleansing became a way of life. All this was taking place four hours from Vienna. Now downtown Lubiana is rehabilitated. It has restaurants, internet cafes, cell-phones, stores that sell running shoes, DVD players and overpriced art. But, don’t be too concerned, none of the characters in Coding Slave are based on anybody that I know from Slovenia.

Rory:

Some coders are going to look at the book and think, "Hey - I don't have time for stories." To some extent, I can't blame them for the judgment since they don't know what to expect, and many of them are pretty busy people. However, this isn't just a piece of fiction meant to entertain. Rather, I got the feeling that I was reading a book-long argument about The Industry, how things are changing, and the fact that we're going to have to deal with that change. What do you have to say about that? I don't believe for a second that you were simply out to provide some fodder for a rainy day.

Bob:

It is true that I am not out to provide fodder for a rainy day. I am out to make some fun, make some thinking and to make a difference. The model for Coding Slave is Eliyahu M. Goldratt’s book, The Goal. Goldratt is a well known thinker and theoretician in the realm of serious industrial manufacturing. Goldratt is the guy that come up with the Theory of Constraints. The Theory of Constraints is a set of principals that are designed to make factories work more efficiently. Now, Coding Slave has nothing to do with Goldratt or The Theory of Constraints. What I borrowed from Eliyahu is the method by which he explained his theories. The Goal is written as a novel and in this novel he explains the complexities of his theories in a very easy to understand, easy to assimilate matter. It’s an easy read and designed for the busy manufacturing executive who is responsible for running a multimillion dollar factory profitably. I am not talking making ceramic pots. I am talking about making automobiles, aircraft carriers, refrigerators, sewing machines and hydroelectric turbines.

I am always amazed to think how much the average person takes for granted in terms of the immense difficulty it takes to make the things of our world. I mean, have you ever thought how many parts there are in a common street bus or escalator? These things don’t appear by magic or get delivered by the escalator-fairy; they get made. Making stuff is hard, and making the stuff that makes the stuff is even harder. I think software developers forget this at times. All we care about is that the code run right. But in the real world, even the most banal of hardware counts. Can you imagine what would happen if the tires on a 747 blew up on landing?

But back to the model for Coding Slave. Whereas The Goal is filled with detailed scenarios and explanations about how to put Goldratt’s theories into action, as fiction it is a bit underdeveloped in terms of character depth. The characters are very secondary to the theoretical framework of the book. Coding Slave on the other hand is very focused on the characters and the situations in which they live, prosper and decline. Yes, I do offer an idea at the end, a pretty detailed idea I like to think. But, most of the book is about people and situations that are part of the IT landscape. And, as a writer I find a lot of nuance and drama in that landscape, something well worth writing about.

End Note:

For those of you coming to the Coding Slave BOF and Grand Soirée at Tech Ed. If you can name all five breakaway countries from Yugoslavia, you get a Coding Slave T-Shirt. Name the capitals of these countries and I will throw in a Too Tight Tank Top for your girlfriend or boyfriend.

After Blog Mint [?] :

Leon gets away from his computer for a week and dreams the future of file navigation...