Coders

Fascinating. Thompson is an excellent writer and his subjects are themselves gripping . . . Many books have covered this territory, but Coders is bang up to date in a fast-moving world. * Nature * [Thompson] is a brilliant social anthropologist. And, in this masterful book, he illuminates both the fascinating coders and the bewildering technological forces that are transforming the world in which we live. -- David Grann, author of <i>The Lost City of Z</i> [Thompson] outlines [coders'] different personality traits, their history and cultural touchstones . . . By breaking down what the actual world of coding looks like . . . he removes the mystery and brings it into the legible world for the rest of us to debate. * New York Times * With his trademark clarity and insight, Thompson gives us an unparalleled vista into the mind-set and culture of programmers, the often-invisible architects and legislators of the digital age. -- Steven Johnson, author of <i>How We Got to Now</i> Coders is an engrossing, deeply clued-in ethnography, and it's also a book about power, a new kind: where it comes from, how it feels to wield it, who gets to try - and how all that is changing. -- Robin Sloan, author of <i>Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore</i> Before I read this brilliantly accessible book . . . coding was something of a foggy concept to me . . . There are strings of engaging insights into the anthropology of computer programmers. * Bookseller * An avalanche of profiles, stories, quips, and anecdotes in this beautifully reported book returns us constantly to people, their stories, their hopes and thrills and disappointments . . . Fun to read, this book knows its stuff and makes it fun to learn. * Philadelphia Inquirer *

Clive Thompson is a longtime contributing writer for the New York Times magazine and a monthly columnist for Wired. He is the author of Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better.

Chapter - 1: The Software Update That Changed Reality Chapter - 2: The Four Waves of Coders Chapter - 3: Constant Frustration and Bursts of Joy Chapter - 4: Among the INTJs Chapter - 5: The Cult of Efficiency Chapter - 6: 10X, Rock Stars and the Myth of Meritocracy Chapter - 7: The ENAIC Girls Vanish Chapter - 8: Hackers, Crackers, and Freedom Fighters Chapter - 9: Cucumbers, Skynet, and Rise of the AI Chapter - 10: Scale, Trolls, and Big Tech Chapter - 11: Blue-collar Coding Acknowledgements - i: Acknowledgements Section - ii: Notes Index - iii: Index