by Shel Silverstein

I think I've owned this book ever since it was featured in the Book-of-the-Month Club some time in the mid-80's. This would have been one of the books I received after having neglected to return the card with the “Do Not Deliver the Monthly Selection” box checked. I've read it in spurts, but have otherwise paid it little heed as I've schlepped it between various dwellings in four states over the past twenty years.

Now, I've dusted it off and have begun reading it to Ben at bedtime. It's been lots of fun even though about half of the jokes and references are just an inch or two over Ben's head. It's one of those story-time experiences that are as much fun or the parent as the child. (I flash back to a memory as a six-year-old, listening to my Mom crack herself up while reading the original A.A. Milne Winne-the-Pooh books.) Ben's favorites so far are ldquo;Polar Bear in the Frigidaire” and “Backwards Bill,” but we're only about halfway through so far.

Posted by ksmoker at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

by Albert Camus

After listening to the In Our Time podcast on Albert Camus, I decided to revisit his two most famous novels, The Stranger and The Plague.

It had been about 10 years since I last read The Stranger and although I pretty much hated it the first time around, in light of the podcast discussion I had just heard, it seemed worth a second chance--not to mention, it's really a short and quick read, so no real risk. There are few examples of the existentialist or absurdist philosophy (depending on whichever label applies) that are as accessible as this one. In the character of Mersault, Camus presents us with a man possessing an extreme indifference and arrogance toward the world and the people around him. This aspect of the novel, which repulsed me the first time around, is balanced by the equally extreme indifference of the world toward humanity. Mersault, in taking the seemingly straightforward and obvious (to him) approach of matching the world's indifference with his own, becomes outcast from human society and eventually receives the death penalty as the only just punishment (as far as society is concerned) in response to his unrepented murder of a virtual stranger on the beach.

In contrast to the protagonist of The Stranger, all of the leading characters in The Plague demonstrate a different approach to the random horrors inflicted by the world they live in. Trapped in the Mediterranean port city of Oran by an outbreak of the bubonic plague, the inhabitants struggle to deal with the absurdity and apparent injustice of the world that they are forced to confront. Although reviewers often treat the plague as anallegory for Nazi Germany and the rise of fascism in Camus' time, I don't really feel that comparison is all that airtight. It seems to me that a faceless enemy is crucial and compelling in the story Camus is trying to tell, that if one is true to oneself and one's beliefs, the struggle in the face of apparent inevitability is the only logical approach. In this sense, the struggle is not heroic. But it can still be inspiring.

Posted by ksmoker at 7:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Rebecca Goldstein

This is not the definitive Gödel bigoraphy; instead, Goldstein focuses on mainly on Gödel's early years in Vienna and on the Incompleteness Theorems themselves. As part of Norton's Great Discoveries Series, this book is written by a (primarily) fiction writer with the goal of bringing the story of one of history's great scientific breakthroughs to the lay public. Goldstein does this quite well, although the story might not be the one that all readers might expect. For those interested in insights to Gödel's notorious paranoia and reclusive nature in his later years, look elsewhere. For those interested in the influence that the Theorems had on future thinkers, look elsewhere. For those looking for a lay understanding of the Theorems (without necessarily needing to understand their larger context) or those who are interested in how Gödel fit into the famous Vienna Circle (or didn't fit in, as it turns out), then this is the book for you.

Posted by ksmoker at 6:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

by Max Barry

I haven't been keeping up with my media consumption lately, so I'll be using the next few posts to do some catching up.

This book is a fun little satire of corporate culture and the rise of management “self-help” industry. As a manager myself, the book is fun to the extent that one doesn't take it too seriously; however, the satire is biting enough that it sometimes hits close to home. I don't want to give away the central conceit, but the moral is mundane enough to share: companies who stress productivity and efficiency and profitability at their employees' expense (no matter what the cold, technical data might support), will never be truly successful.

Sounds boring enough, but the story is carried along grandly by the abundant (black) humor and snappy prose. Max Barry knows how to make cynicism fun.

Posted by ksmoker at 10:33 PM | Permalink

by Cormac McCarthy

Seth posted a quote-unquote review of Cormac McCarthy's recent novel The Road, so now I have to get my act together and post my thoughts on Blood Meridian, which I finally got around to reading last summer.

Except I (still) don't really know what to say about it. On the one hand, the writing is hauntingly beautiful, while on the other hand, the subject matter is often gruesome and devastating. Anyone who still nurtures a nostalgic view of the Old West, à la John Wayne or Dances With Wolves, will have these notions shaken by McCarthy's straightforward depiction of the brutality of life in the desert Southwest circa 1850. The plot traces the activities of the infamous Glanton Gang, detailing the atrocities committed by and toward this gang in chillingly cold and stark detail.

And since it might not be clear by my description thus far, let me say that this is the reason why you should read this book: McCarthy's writing, spare as it is, is brilliant and mesmerizing. It's one of those books that (assuming you're able to stomach it) will stay with you, one that you'll never forget.

I'm probably not doing justice to the book here. Perhaps I should have just followed the example of the normally not-at-a-loss-for-words David Foster Wallace who, when he listing this book among the five most underappreciated novels written since 1960, offered a three word review: “Don't even ask.”

Posted by ksmoker at 9:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

by Phillip Pullman

My summer reading topped out at about a half-dozen books (depending at how you define “summer&rdquo) and that was compressed into about a six week period. I started off the summer with this trilogy, lent to me by Jane, plowing through all three volumes during the brief lull between the Jazz Festival and Christopher's arrival.

Ostensibly a fantasy trilogy aimed at a slightly older audience than the Harry Potter series, there is plenty here to appeal to adults as well (especially in The Golden Compass) although (especially by about halfway through The Amber Spyglass) it won't be everyone's cup of tea.

The action begins in Oxford, England, except it isn't our Oxford, England. This Oxford exists in a parallel universe on a parallel planet Earth where evolution has taken a slightly different path than ours has. For example, in this universe there are witches, polar bear mercenaries, and cliff-dwelling vampire-like creatures. Oh yeah, there are also familiars, i.e., every human being is accompanied at all times by an animal form, who acts as friend, confidant, and spiritual advisor. This bizarre, yet strangely familiar world is the backdrop for an intriguing and fanciful tale of one young girl's quest to redeem herself, and in the process unwittingly becomes one of the central figures in a battle to save the world.

The books travel through several other parallel universes and slowly, over the course of several hundred pages, we learn that the mysterious conflict about which the plot swirls is nothing less than an apocalyptic struggle between Good and Evil. And this isn't any wimpy old metaphorical good and evil, à la Tolkien. This is the Good and Evil, a struggle for the future of the universe (all the universes, part of the journey even includes a trip through Hell). By the third book, the struggle includes specters and harpies, angels and demons, Satan and God himself. At its root, the struggle pits the forces for authority and control against those of liberty and free will.

Guess which side God is on.

Posted by ksmoker at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

by Michael F. Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D.

I haven't posted much lately that is non-Christopher- and non-jazz-related, mostly because not much else has been on my mind; however, there are a couple of things to catch up on (now that our sleep schedules have settled into something resembling a routine) such as the books I've been reading. Here's a good one to start with--especially since I've actually read it all the way through, unlike most of the books still stacked up on the nightstand.

I heard these guys on the Diane Rehm Show awhile back, so one afternoon when I had finally I decided I was tired of watching my midsection expand, I hopped online and bought this book.

Now, let me just say: there is nothing new in this book. As far as the dieting advice goes, it contains nothing that hasn't been covered in umpteen other books on dieting. There is no gimmick or quick fix that will solve the mid-section issue. The bottom line is: consume fewer calories and exercise. Only a change in lifestyle that includes those two components will be successful to anyone who wants to lose weight (or inches)

The difference with this book is in the science. The authors describe how different kinds of behavior will affect your body's chemistry, either delivering nutrition in a physically satisfying way, or triggering the defense mechanisms that store fat and slow metabolism. The authors deliver this scientific mumbo-jumbo in an clever and engaging fashion, with lots of humorous illustrations and anecdotes. My only real gripe is how over-the-top some of this was. It really got head-clutchingly hokey at times--there were more corny similes here than in the entire Encyclopedia Brown series put together.

So we're going to try it out. All whole grains, only lean meat, no sugars, more fruits and vegetables, blah, blah, blah, oh...and regular exercise.

Posted by ksmoker at 6:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

by Doris Kearns Goodwin

This book has literally been on my nightstand and has been part of my regular reading routine since I received it as a Christmas present. In 2005. It's not that it's boring or bad, quite the contrary. It's just that I seem to be slipping into my father's habit of reading just before bedtime, which consists of spending five minutes trying to figure out where I left off and then re-reading the last three pages of the five total that I had read the night before while nodding off.

This book is fascinating, though; otherwise, it wouldn't have lasted so long on the nightstand. We all know the story of Lincoln: born in a log cabin, self-educated country lawyer rises to the presidency, captains the country through the Civil War, assassinated in Ford's Theatre. Somewhere in that narrative, we are supposed to also learn of his greatness as a moral leader.

Regarding Lincoln's moral fiber, there was some doubt among Lincoln's more ardent contemporaries concerning his position on slavery and race; however, a careful study shows that, whatever his personal attitudes, he was clearly on the side of ending slavery. Where Lincoln was unique and what made him truly great was his political skill. Yes, above all, Lincoln was a consumate politician, with all (maybe more) of the personal ambition and thirst for power typical of that profession. One of Lincoln's famous quotations spells out his particular form of ambition, when at age 23 he was campaigning for the Illinois General Assembly:

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition, is yet to be developed.

Pulitzer Prize winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin uses this as the theme of her book as she describes how Lincoln was able to gather and manage a cabinet composed of his chief political rivals. All of these men were likely the most talented for their positions, but they were also the most willful, ambitious, and contentious collection of egos ever assembled into one team (except for maybe the '03-'04 Lakers). Lincoln did not just keep these competing egos in check--sometimes using almost Machiavellian behind-the-scenes machinations--he also provided a common direction and purpose for the cabinet and the country. It was Lincoln's ambition, his drive for making himself worthy of our esteem, that was the true source of his enduring political and moral legacy.

Posted by ksmoker at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Mark Eberhart

When considering the history of human endeavor, specifically the human habit of the crafting and building of things, it is clear that breakage is of critical importance to mankind. We have continued to improve our understanding of how things break and over time, and we have learned how to design our tools and buildings to take account of the breaking habits that the materials we use might possess.

This book proposes that although we have paid great attention to the how, we have only recently begun to ask why things break. Written for the the non-technical reader, this book provides a basic understanding of materials science. Reading this book, you will learn:

• How adding tin to copper creates a metal (bronze) much stronger than either of the two.
• How the Titanic sank because its steel hull was made brittle by the contamination of the iron ore with sulfur (there was also something about an iceberg).
• How Corelleware and Pyrex, when they do break, break in really slivery and sometimes explosive ways.
• How our cars and airplanes are constrained by the material used to travel at only a limited speed.

There's lots of interesting discussion of how chemical bonds create the properties of toughness (think Kevlar) or hardness (think ceramics), but not much discussion of why the chemical bonds work the way they do. The last couple of chapters begin to delve into this area, but that's where my eyes only just started glazing over. This is apparently the puzzle that scientist are currently still trying to solve. If they are successful in unlocking this secret and also are able to apply it to the manufacture of new materials, we will see a revolution in the products we can create and consume.

Posted by ksmoker at 7:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Ron Suskind

Ron Suskind's book has been making some waves in the past few months on the talk show circuit and in op-ed pieces. The focus has been on the book's various scandalous revelations, ranging from deliberate targeting of Al Jazeera offices in Baghdad to the CIA's unofficial choice of "Edgar" as the codename for Vice President Cheney--Edgar as in Edgar Bergen. Presumably, President Bush would then be Charlie McCarthy.

Whatever. These items, taken on their own, are just red meat for the various partisan dogs on either side of the fence. The real service that Suskind provides is in his exposing of the defining doctrine of the Bush presidency and placing the responsibility/blame for this doctrine squarely at the feet of the VP. Here's Suskind's description:

Even if there's just a 1 percent chance of the unimaginable coming due, act as if it is a certainty. It's not about 'our analysis,' as Cheney said. It's about 'our response.' … Justified or not, fact-based or not, 'our response' is what matters. As to 'evidence,' the bar was set so low that the word itself almost didn't apply.

Iraq is obviously what we're talking about here. And honestly, as a doctrine, this may have some valid application for actions such as, oh I don't know, disaster relief efforts maybe, but as the basis for large-scale military aggression?

So okay, it's all Cheney's fault (Rumsfeld's too, to no one's surprise), so but what about the President? The way Suskind describes it, he's not to blame, having been too well-insulated from the real world concerns such as military strategy or intelligence briefings.

What about the CIA? Well. The source for Suskind's book had to be someone from within the CIA. George Tenet¹ in particular, and the agency in general, is portrayed, at worst, as patsies to White House ambitions, or at best, as the heroes on the front lines of this new era's conflict. There's no doubt that the rules have changed and that the agency is in worse shape than it was when Tenet left, but Suskind lets the CIA off the hook for various errors (missteps, lack of judgement, unpreparednness, etc.) both before and after 9-11.

The August 10 issue of the NY Review of Books had three separate articles that fill in the gaps in Suskind's analysis quite nicely. One outlined various visions for a new direction in US diplomatic affairs. Another (unfortunately, not freely available online) traces the recent ascendancy of Shi'ite Islam and the historical conflict within Islam between the Shia and Sunni camps. The last (and most illuminating after having read the One Percent Doctrine), is an article by Peter W. Galbraith that outlines wide and various examples of--"missteps" is too polite a word--incompetence by US military and intelligence in Iraq, especially in the leadership of Secretary of Defense Dick Rumsfeld.

The most damning section of the article shows how clearly the administration's hubris, empowered by national will in the wake of 9-11 and driven by neo-conservative idealism, not only failed to deliver on the promises of those leading the charge, but also made an already bad situation worse for American national interests. The classic maxim of "know thine enemy" was forgotten:

Saddam could not imagine that the United States would see an advantage in replacing him with a pro-Iranian, Shiite-dominated regime. Knowing very little about American politics, he could not grasp the ideological fervor of the Pentagon neo-conservatives who believed Iraq's democratic transformation would revolutionize the Middle East. Rumsfeld and the neo-conservatives could not imagine that Iraqis would not embrace liberation and pro-Western democracy and they assumed that both the invasion and occupation to follow would be easy. For the American generals, to challenge the petty tyrant on the Potomac could have ended their careers; for their Iraqi counterparts, taking on the tyrant on the Tigris could have ended their lives.

The worst part is, the worst part may be yet to come.

Posted by ksmoker at 8:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

By James Michener

It was pretty odd timing for me to finish this book just as the centuries-old turmoil in Israel began to boil over yet again last week. The Source opens at an archaeological dig in Northern Israel and through a series of stories built around the objects found at that dig, tells the history of the Jewish people beginning with the pre-historic clan that inhabited a nearby cave and ending with the mid-century battle for a new Jewish state.

This is the typical Michener style, and it works especially well in this setting--the crossroads of so much cultural and religious intermingling and conflict. He traces the beginning of monotheism and the sweep of successive cultures through the area: the Canaanites, the original Israelites, the Babylonian Diaspora, the Hellenistic period, the Romans, the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Ottomans, the origins of Hasidism, and the Zionist impulses to rebuild a new Israel.

There is a lot of artistic license going on here as well. The characters, since they act as thematic representatives of entire cultures, are often little more than caricatures; the events portrayed are neatly shoe-horned into the grand events of each age; and everything seems just a little too conveniently arranged to fit in the overall metaphor. Aside from this stereotyping (especially his negative portrayal of the Arabs), the historical accuracy seems pretty solid. This is to say, most of the stories are tragic--paralleling much of Jewish history.

My parents read this book prior to their tour of Israel early this year, and I can think of few better introductions to the wide and varied history of the region. It covers a lot of ground, but is incredibly readable and provides a crash course in the rich and varied history of the region.

Posted by ksmoker at 6:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Edited by Santiago Zabala

This book, comprised of one essay each by Richard Rorty and Gianni Vattimo plus a mediated dialogue between the two, is essentially a bridge-building exercise between a secularist (Rorty) and a theologian (Vattimo). The title is somewhat misleading since the book focusses solely on Christianity in Western society. The scope of the book is also limited in the sense that the conclusions the two reach are made obvious from the very beginning. The book promotes a particular view of religion with two separate (but intertwining) arguments made on behalf of this view. despite the limitations, it is a fascinating argument, nonetheless.

What is the argument being made? In a nutshell: love will conquer all.

Seriously, that's it. So why should you have to read a somewhat egg-headed philosophical discussion to reach this conclusion? Well, obviously, you don't have to. What makes this book more interesting is how the two philosophers reach the same conclusions while arguing from almost completely opposite backgrounds.

Rorty, for example, acknowledges the value of religion and spirituality. He disavows his earlier embrace of atheism, now preferring the term "anti-clericalism." While a personal spiritual belief is not for him, he acknowledges that individual religious belief can be a force for good. It is only dogmatic religion that he objects to. With the same logic that he uses to attack foundationalist philosophies, Rorty argues that strict atheism is a philosophical dead-end. The atheist's outright denial of God's existence is just as detrimental to fruitful conversation as the evangelist's insistence on a literal interpretation of Genesis.

Meanwhile, Vattimo, a devout Catholic, argues that the the true value of the Church lies not in its protection of religion and the codification of behavior, but in the freedom it allows for personal religious discovery. He argues, somewhat astonishingly, that Christ's message of charity and humility provides the basis for modern secular life. It is a nihilistic, some would say relativistic, modern secular society that is actually the culmination of Christianity. Arguing that it is a uniquely Christian message of interpretation and understanding that has so permeated Western society, Vattimo states,

But must we really believe in Jesus Christ only if we are able to demonstrate that God created the world in seven days or that Jesus himself actually rose on Easter morning and by extension that man is by nature one thing or another or that the family is by nature monogamous and heterosexual, that matrimony is by nature indissoluble, that woman is incapable by nature of entering the priestly office, and so on? It is far more reasonable to believe that our existence depends on God, because here, today, we are unable to speak our language and live out our historicity without responding too the message transmitted to us by the Bible.

That message is the message of love, charity, and hope.

This slim book is a philosophical discussion with frequent references to Heidegger and Nietzsche and I found myself having to reference Wikipedia at several points along the way, but I still quite enjoyed it. At minimum, no matter what your beliefs or background, there is surely something here that will challenge your preconceptions.

Posted by ksmoker at 7:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Maxx Barry

I had a lot of fun reading this book, even though I breezed through it in just two days. A friend at work, as he was lending it to me, tried to describe it for me and couldn't. I'm not sure I can do much better, but I'll give it a shot: think Elmore Leonard on benzedrine plus a smattering of Tom Robbins.

No, that won't work. Here, let me try something else. See, the lead character's name is Scat. His love interest, who also happens to be his business partner, is named 6. Their nemesis and his ex-roommate is Sneaky Pete. Sneaky Pete's assistant is @. (Yes, her name is @.) They all work, in one form or another, for Coca-Cola. The book revolves around their attempts to climb the corporate ladder while, as often and as treacherously as possible, stabbing each other in the back.

Okay, okay. It's a satire. A dystopian view of corporate culture and general marketing sleaziness.

Umm, get the idea?

Posted by ksmoker at 10:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Richard Rorty

Back in the days when I thought that I wanted to be a history professor, I had a job at the University of Virginia Law Library. One of my duties was to deliver various journals, newspapers, and periodicals to the professors' offices. To perform these duties, I had a passkey. I was drunk with power, I tell you, empowered to snatch 5-week-overdue reference books from professors' desks in semi-regular guerilla raids.

One of the UVA professors whose office I would visit was Richard Rorty (he now holds a position at Stanford). Unfortunately, I don't recall anything about him or his office, but his name stood out as I was vaguely aware that he was some philosophy hot-shot; I often wondered why he was on the law faculty as opposed to the philosophy department faculty.

Well, after reading this book of his essays, I've decided that it's likely that the philosophy department didn't want him anywhere near their students. Rorty is from the Pragmatist school and as such has spent the bulk of his lengthy and prodigious career arguing against the very premises upon which much of traditional philosophy is based. Rorty describes this as "a set of philosophical distinctions (appearance-reality, matter-mind, made-found, sensible-intellectual, etc.): what Dewey called 'a brood and nest of dualisms'."

The classic example of philosophical dualism is Plato's Allegory of the Cave. That is, our perception of the world around us is fuzzy at best, and we can only approximate the "essence" of the things we encounter. It should be every thinking person's goal to understand this hidden, deeper "reality" that exists in the world.

Rorty doesn't exactly say that these hidden truths do not exist. His point is that human beings are inherently incapable of comprehending the essence of things since our very existence depends on interactions with the world around us. Everything has some relation to something else; it is the only way we can make sense of things. So rather than say his opponents are wrong, he simply says that they are thinking in the wrong terms. In other words, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and Kant are simply no longer relevant.

Instead of searching for a hidden truth, Rorty focusses on how to improve human interactions in order to create a better society. This of course is the source of the "pragmatist" label. This is also where the title of this book figures in. Rorty sees much to be hopeful for in the slow evolution of our societal values. This trend is not inevitable, though. He warns of potential obstacles to continued improvement and advocates for vigilance in maintaining human freedoms. This book was published in 1999 and, clearly, he now has some serious doubts about the direction our society is heading today.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through the book right now. It's the kind of book that, as I read, I find myself nodding in agreement. Rorty inhabits a space equally annoying to the political right and academic left that seems very comfortable to me. I'm secretly hoping to find within this book's pages an answer to the semi-troubling question Mike posed a while ago.

Posted by ksmoker at 8:33 PM | Permalink

by Jan Wong

This is a remarkable memoir is subtitled, "My Long March from Mao to Now." Jan Wong was a 60's radical, a true believer in the superiority of Maoist thought. Or so she thought. As a Canadian of Chinese descent, she was in a position to apply to Beijing University. When China granted her the opportunity, she seized it, anxious to contribute to the Mao's Cultural Revolution.

Now, if you're like me, your understanding of Chinese history (even recent history) is shaky at best. For many Americans, our only of the exposure to the events of the late 60s and early 70s in China come from brief glosses in movies like Farewell My Concubine or the Red Violin. Perhaps surprisingly, Jan Wong's first-hand account supports the broad-brush impression that one gets from these films.

In reading the first half of this book, which covers Wong's years as a student and worker, I was mildly annoyed by her tendency to filter her youthful naiveté through her reaffirmed Western sensibilities. While describing her attempts to support her suffering comrades, she doesn't need to constantly remind us that she sees the world differently now. I would have preferred a more straightforward account minus the editorializing.

But then in the second half of the book, this is exactly the approach she uses as she relates her return to China after an eight-year absence in her new role as a reporter for the Toronto Globe and Mail. This is particularly true of her eyewitness account of the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989, the most arresting and heart-wrenching part of the book.

Perhaps the most valuable and interesting feature of the book is how clearly Wong is able to trace the incredibly rapid pace of change in Chinese culture. The cover of the paperback edition juxtaposes an image of Chairman Mao with one of Ronald McDonald. For China to embrace the most capitalist icon of the West so soon after Mao's death is mind-boggling. However, this isn't the whole story. Having shown both sides of the Maoist coin, Wong doesn't shy away from describing the hardships that Deng Xiaoping's capitalist reforms have visited on the countryside.

In the end Wong accepts the superiority of the capitalist model and expresses hope that the capitalist reforms will eventually drag political reform along with it. Wong's memoir concludes in 1996. I'm anxious to find something as enjoyable as Red China Blues that can fill in the last ten years of Chinese cultural evolution.

Posted by ksmoker at 9:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Jim Highsmith

This book provides a good summary of the various agile software development methodologies that are gaining more and more credence in the programming community today. In a nutshell, an agile development promotes an environment that is collaborative, follows rigorous testing practices, provides frequent releases, and actively solicits and incorporates customer feedback. The goal is fast and efficient delivery of software that allows for real-world contingencies and actually works.

Agile software developers recognize that for many (not all, and maybe not even most) software projects there is just too much gray area. There is too much potential for miscommunication and error to follow a set-in-stone production schedule and release dates. Rather than control these projects with a top-down approach, the methodologies outlined in this book take uncertainty as a given and have fashioned various systems for dealing with such realities as unexpected delays, shifting customer expectations, and fluid deadlines.

When properly implemented, such systems provide on-time delivery of software that is within budget and satisfies the customer need while providing a more human and enjoyable work atmosphere for the software developers. The author takes great pains to point out that each agile system has its strengths and weaknesses. In addition, not software projects will benefit from an agile approach. In cases where an agile development environment would be beneficial, Jim Highsmith provides an excellent resource for choosing from among the various options available.

Posted by ksmoker at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)