Peopleware Papers: Notes on the Human Side of Software, The

Part II. Cowboys and Cowgirls

Introduction

One of the great things about doing a column in a computer magazine is that readers respond by electronic mail, creating a lively immediacy in the relationship between reader and writer. Over the years, Peopleware has generated a steady exchange with an intelligent and interested readership who frequently and repeatedly get excited or incensed enough to inquire or comment. I have come to look at reading the regular e-mail (and irregular snailmail) as a part of writing the column.

I was totally unprepared, however, for the deluge triggered by my first column on “coding cowboys.” In fact, that column and its successor broke records for reader response. Suddenly, I was in the wild west of an earlier epoch. ...