Thursday, September 27, 2007

we need a Fog Creek in Hawaii

we need a Fog Creek in Hawaii. if you don't know about fog creek, um where have you been? you better read up on them and joel right now. for those of you that know of them, i know you guys are thinking, "duh, everyone would love to work there". well, i'm young and naive enough to think that every company could run like theirs. why not? i'd like to here why you think it isn't possible.

anyway, the following are quotes from their website that prove to me that they understand software development:

  • Good software development talent is scarce. The really great developers — the ones who change the world — are hard to find, attract, and recruit.

  • We have one priority at Fog Creek Software: building the company where the best software developers in the world want to work.

  • That means management, not coding, is the support function. Management is not here to make decisions, but to get all the furniture out of the way so that software developers can do great stuff.

  • That means the nicest work environment we can get. We recently moved into a new office that was custom-designed by a top architect to be the ideal programming workspace, with private offices, windows everywhere, a lounge with a big plasma TV, and every feature a programmer could ever want. We even have twenty power outlets at each desk, at desk height. That's how fanatical we are about catering to programmers. Oh, and really comfortable chairs. We never hesitate to buy the tools we need to get our work done (dual LCD monitors are standard issue, for example).

  • We are focused on continual learning, mentoring, and education. We're not writing the same old code again and again; we're not using the same technologies for year after year, and we have plenty of time and opportunity to learn new things.


  • haha. if you are not a hacker you are probably thinking that they are spoiled hackers. well, thats how you get the best hackers. joel is doing a great job of creating a mystique. so, part of them saying all this is a marketing strategy. (ignore that for now) anyway, the thing is that they are focused on doing the best work possible. if you have the best and brightest then you are going to have the best products. i'm not sure there is an argument against that.

    anyway, fog creek is awesome. innovation is awesome. learning is awesome.

    hackystat ideas from the fog creek website
    taking the fogbugz tour shows some interesting charts. take these for example:




    the first image is cool, i don't think we thought of that in hackystat. the second image, i think we tried that with the issue version analyses. anyway, i thought those were interesting.