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Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World Kindle Edition

by Clive Thompson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Hello, world.

Facebook's algorithms shaping the news. Self-driving cars roaming the streets. Revolution on Twitter and romance on Tinder. We live in a world constructed of code--and coders are the ones who built it for us. From acclaimed tech writer Clive Thompson comes a brilliant anthropological reckoning with the most powerful tribe in the world today, computer programmers, in a book that interrogates who they are, how they think, what qualifies as greatness in their world, and what should give us pause. They are the most quietly influential people on the planet, and Coders shines a light on their culture.

In pop culture and media, the people who create the code that rules our world are regularly portrayed in hackneyed, simplified terms, as ciphers in hoodies. Thompson goes far deeper, dramatizing the psychology of the invisible architects of the culture, exploring their passions and their values, as well as their messy history. In nuanced portraits, Coders takes us close to some of the great programmers of our time, including the creators of Facebook's News Feed, Instagram, Google's cutting-edge AI, and more. Speaking to everyone from revered "10X" elites to neophytes, back-end engineers and front-end designers, Thompson explores the distinctive psychology of this vocation--which combines a love of logic, an obsession with efficiency, the joy of puzzle-solving, and a superhuman tolerance for mind-bending frustration.

Along the way, Coders thoughtfully ponders the morality and politics of code, including its implications for civic life and the economy. Programmers shape our everyday behavior: When they make something easy to do, we do more of it. When they make it hard or impossible, we do less of it. Thompson wrestles with the major controversies of our era, from the "disruption" fetish of Silicon Valley to the struggle for inclusion by marginalized groups.

In his accessible, erudite style, Thompson unpacks the surprising history of the field, beginning with the first coders -- brilliant and pioneering women, who, despite crafting some of the earliest personal computers and programming languages, were later written out of history. Coders introduces modern crypto-hackers fighting for your privacy, AI engineers building eerie new forms of machine cognition, teenage girls losing sleep at 24/7 hackathons, and unemployed Kentucky coal-miners learning a new career.

At the same time, the book deftly illustrates how programming has become a marvelous new art form--a source of delight and creativity, not merely danger. To get as close to his subject as possible, Thompson picks up the thread of his own long-abandoned coding skills as he reckons, in his signature, highly personal style, with what superb programming looks like.

To understand the world today, we need to understand code and its consequences. With Coders, Thompson gives a definitive look into the heart of the machine.

Print length

448 pages
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English
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Penguin Books
Publication date

March 26, 2019
File size

1930 KB
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Editorial Reviews

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“Fascinating. Thompson is an excellent writer and his subjects are themselves gripping. . . . [W]hat Thompson does differently is to get really close to the people he writes about: it’s the narrative equivalent of Technicolor, 3D and the microscope. . . . People who interact with coders routinely, as colleagues, friends or family, could benefit tremendously from these insights.” —Nature

“With an anthropologist’s eye, [Thompson] outlines [coders’] different personality traits, their history and cultural touchstones. He explores how they live, what motivates them and what they fight about. 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. Human beings and their foibles are the reason the internet is how it is—for better and often, as this book shows, for worse.” —The New York Times Book Review

“An outstanding author and long-form journalist. . . . I particularly enjoyed [Thompson’s] section on automation.” —Tim Ferriss

“The best survey to date of this world and its people . . . 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.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer

“[An] enjoyable primer on the world of computer programmers. . . . Coders are building the infrastructure on which twenty-first century society rests, and their work has every chance of surviving as long, and being as important, as the Brooklyn Bridge—or, for that matter, the Constitution.” —Bookforum

“Thompson delivers again with this well-written narrative on coders, individual histories, and the culture of coder life, at home and work. . . . In addition to analyzing the work-life of coders, he brilliantly reveals several examples of how they live in their respective relationships. Throughout, Thompson also does a great job exploring the various drivers that permeate the industry: merit, openness of code, long coding stints without sleep, and how the culture tends toward start-up culture even when companies are established. This engaging work will appeal to readers who wish to learn more about the intersection of technology and culture, and the space in which they blur together.” —Library Journal, starred review

“Thompson offers a broad cultural view of the world of coders and programmers from the field’s origins in the mid-twentieth century to the present. In this highly readable and entertaining narrative, he notes the sense of scale and logical efficiency in coding and the enthusiasm with which programmers go about creating new features and finding bugs. . . . [A] comprehensive look at the people behind the digital systems now essential to everyday life.”—Booklist

“Looks at some of the stalwarts and heroes of the coding world, many of them not well-known. . . . Thompson is an enthusiast and a learned scholar alike. . . . Fans of Markoff, Levy, Lanier, et al. will want to have a look at this intriguing portrait of coding and coders.” —Kirkus

“In this revealing exploration of programming, programmers, and their far-reaching influence, Wired columnist Thompson opens up an insular world and explores its design philosophy’s consequences, some of them unintended. Through interviews and anecdotes, Thompson expertly plumbs the temperament and motivations of programmers. . . . [Coders] contains possibly the best argument yet for how social media maneuvers users into more extreme political positions. . . . Impressive in its clarity and thoroughness, Thompson’s survey shines a much-needed light on a group of people who have exerted a powerful effect on almost every aspect of the modern world.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"As a person who has spent a lot of time writing code, I can confirm that you need to be a little bit of a weirdo to love it. Clive Thompson’s book is an essential field guide to the eccentric breed of architects who are building the algorithms that shape our future, and the AIs who will eventually rise up and enslave us. Good luck, humans!” —Jonathan Coulton, musician

“Clive Thompson is more than a gifted reporter and writer. He 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 The Lost City of Z and Killers of the Flower Moon

“With his trademark clarity and insight, Clive 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 How We Got to Now

“If you have to work with programmers, it’s essential to understand that programming has a culture. This book will help you understand what programmers do, how they do it, and why. It decodes the culture of code.” —Kevin Kelly, senior maverick for Wired

“Clive Thompson is the ideal guide to who coders are, what they do, and how they wound up taking over the world. For a book this important, inspiring, and scary, it’s sinfully fun to read.” —Steven Levy, author of In the Plex

“It’s a delight to follow Clive Thompson’s roving, rollicking mind anywhere. When that ‘anywhere’ is the realm of the programmers, the pleasure takes on extra ballast. 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 Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore

“Clive Thompson has deftly picked apart the myth of a tech meritocracy. Guiding readers through the undercovered history of programming’s female roots, Coders points with assurance to the inequities that have come to define coding today, as both a profession and the basis of the technology that shapes our lives. Readable, revealing, and in many ways infuriating.” —Rebecca Traister, author of Good and Mad

“Code shapes coders, and coders shape the code that changes how we think, every day of our lives. If you want to create a more humanistic digital world, read this book to get started.” —Sherry Turkle, professor at MIT; author of Reclaiming Conversation and Alone Together

“Thompson has accomplished the nearly impossible task of portraying the coding world exactly as it is: messy, inspiring, naive, and—at times—shameful. Coders is a beautifully written and refreshingly fair portrayal of a young industry that’s accomplished so much and still has a lot to learn.” —Saron Yitbarek, CEO and founder of CodeNewbie

About the Author

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

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07DBRNN1Z
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books (March 26, 2019)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 26, 2019
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1930 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 448 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #105,916 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #46 in General Technology & Reference
- #50 in Microsoft Programming (Books)
- #68 in Computer Programming (Kindle Store)

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4.4 352 ratings

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Clive Thompson

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Clive Thompson is a longtime contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and a columnist for Wired.

As a child growing up in Toronto of the 1970s and 80s, Clive Thompson became fascinated with the first “home computers”—the ones you plugged into your TV, like the Commodore 64, and programmed using BASIC. He was hooked, spending hours writing video games, music programs, and simple forms of artificial intelligence. The obsession stuck with him, even as he went to the University of Toronto to study poetry and political science. When he became a magazine writer in the 1990s, the Internet erupted into the mainstream, and he began reporting on how digital tools—everything from email to digital photography to instant messaging—was changing society.

Today, Thompson is one of the most prominent technology writers—respected for keeping his distance from Silicon Valley hype and doing deeply-reported, long-form magazine stories that get beyond headlines and harness the insights of science, literature, history and philosophy. In addition to the New York Times Magazine and Wired, he's a columnist for Smithsonian Magazine, writing about the history of technology, and writes features for Mother Jones. His journalism has won many awards -- including an Overseas Press Council Award and a Mirror Award -- and he's a former Knight Science Journalism Fellow.

In his spare time he’s also a recording and performing artist with the country/bluegrass band The Delorean Sisters.

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Christopher Allbritton

Cracking read on the history of coders, coding and software ... and their future

Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2019

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As a former tech reporter myself, and--full disclosure--a friend of the author, I'm predisposed to like this book. However, even were I not, Coders resonates as a necessary book for our current moment.

At no other time in recent history has software and the people who make it been more critical to how we experience the world. Thanks to the current "pics or it didn't happen" mentality, Thompson's talent at digging into the personalities and the quirks of the mostly men (and the few women) who write the code that we rely on to stay in touch with loved ones, share experiences, shop, consume media, etc., should make readers to think about how the foundations of so much of daily life are produced.

He deftly exhumes the history of the software industry from its early days when coding was considered secretarial labor (and thus left to the ladies) to today's more male-dominated environment, where software bros chase the big score. He asks the right questions: Why did this happen and what was the effect of that shift? What are the knock-on impacts when coders are overwhelmingly white (or Asian), male, and convinced of their own overweening intelligence? Is the current, toxic environment found online solely because humans can be pretty awful to one another? Or is it because the guys who coded the platform just didn't think about online abuse because they never had to? Did that ignorance lead them to unwittingly enable the abuse, fake news, and mob culture we now have to endure? Thompson convincingly argues that a fair amount of that ignorance is at fault.

Ultimately, code doesn't just happen; humans with their weirdo attitudes, biases, ideologies, and faults write it, and they tend to encode into the code itself those very same attitudes, biases, ideologies, and faults -- whether they mean to or not. That's why it's important to understand the history of coders and the code they write. Given how important software is to the modern world -- a glitch at one airport can disrupt airline traffic all over the world, just to name one recent example -- we also have to know who the authors are.

Thompson's book does that, and with a verve, style, and brisk pace that makes Coders a readable, engaging, and valuable addition to this field of study.

9 people found this helpful

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Hande Z

This is a bot writer

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2019

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This is an update of computer applications and the people who write them, ‘coders’. After computers became cheaper and ubiquitous, even teenagers were learning how to write computer programmes. This book explains the phenomenal growth of app and computer programme writing. It tells us of the benefits they bring. Once upon a time, food-stamp users have to check how much money they have left on their cards by telephone – and we all know how much everyone hates a voice tree. Guarino came up with a programme that is a phonebot that allows the user to text the inquiry and will get a reply by text. No more voice tree hassle. The problem was, not all programmes are beneficial or helpful.

Uber staff had used an internal programme to help ex-boyfriends track the whereabouts of their ex-girlfriends. The book also provides insights into the lives and thinking of coders. Some are weird and some ‘make things that don’t see the light of day because nobody else can work with these people’. Programmers come from all walks of life – many are from well-to-do families. The book also points to some sexist problems in that female programmers are fewer than males, but there have been pockets of break-throughs. Some giddy ones even printed the T-shirt that read: ‘Who Hacked the World? GIRLS’.

This book also tracks cypherpunks and how in the early ‘80s hackers proliferated and the FBI began arresting them. One of those early hackers goes by the name of Phiber Optics. Cypherpunks have come a long way too. The next big fight was over the crypto code itself. The government is trying to make it illegal to even write certain kinds of software.

This book also discusses why and how Google beats Microsoft when it came to making a search engine. ‘Microsoft loved making precise, logical software…but Google was about sorting the internet’. They use statistics to make educated guesses. Then we have to deal with the social problems of social media. The section on trolls and what is being done is fascinating in its assessment of online harassment and what is being done about it.

We are reaching the point of in which who becomes a coder, and why, are the dominant questions of the day. Where will future programmers come from? Will there come a day when everyone will be a programmer?

3 people found this helpful

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Gravity O'Monk

A clear-eyed, contemporary history of those who write the software that's eating the world

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2019

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Love this book - I manage a team of software developers and bought a copy for everyone so that the spirit and diversity celebrated in this book can inform how we all think about who we are, who we can be, in this crazy industry we work in. "Coders" will be the definitive history of the early days of digital tech, and yes, we are decidedly still in the early days.

Clive is a master story teller who brings his unique energy to every side of the story -- and with "Coders" some sides never really seen before. With a modern history of software developers that breaks from the common narrative of the lone dude hero nerd (or, at most, two dudes with the same first name, a'la Woz and Jobs or Carmack and Romero), Clive explains how we got here (2019), in not only in the big picture transformations from punch card programming to the phreaks and geeks era, but also from 2010 to 2019. What's changed since the days where it seemed like services like Facebook and Twitter were once keys to unlocking democracy, to today where calls to dismantle or legislate "Big Tech" dominate the headlines? A lack of product foresight, perhaps; follow the money, as usual. Thompson traces the threads through this still evolving history in a detailed, rigorous, but classically Clive-ian fun fashion. And while the exuberant optimism of "Smarter Than You Think" (Thompson's earlier book) is strongly tempered in "Coders" with today's troll filled, robo-clicked, blackbox algorithm concerns, Clive still manages to point ahead, with people and policies and tech that could lead to a hopefully brighter future.

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André S.

Spannend, aber ein bisschen Tag

Reviewed in Germany on January 3, 2022

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Spannend, aber ein bisschen zäh am Ende.

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frederic

Stopped coding for a few hours of reading about it

Reviewed in Canada on April 28, 2019

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Anecdotical for the most parts but nevertheless an enjoyable read about the state of the land as coding and coders of all sorts go.

PF

Master piece !!

Reviewed in France on September 7, 2020

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What a great book about coding and coders. It is really complete and very precise about the history of this profession. Moreover all the major trends to come from this profession are analyzed. And to finish, we discover less media talents but who count.

Amazon Customer

Loved it!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 6, 2020

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I get so excited when I find a great book. I finished this book in a week: fascinating and well written. It's nonfiction but it reads almost like a novel, making it easy and fun to read. I don't plan on becoming a coder but this has helped me understand how relevant programmers are in the working world. I thoroughly enjoyed it; you won't discover the secrets of the universe or be inspired to set up a business, but it's a light and enjoyable read. Recommended!

Dwight Hoyes

Good Reading

Reviewed in Canada on May 3, 2019

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This is an interesting book but a little too long. Could have used better editing. Worth reading none-the-less.

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