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Max Kanat-Alexander

Goodreads Author

Born

in Los Angeles, CA, The United States

Website

http://www.codesimplicity.com/

Twitter

mkanat

Genre

Nonfiction

Member Since

January 2013

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/mkanat

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Max is a Senior Software Engineer at Google and former Chief Architect of the Bugzilla Project. He has been fixing computers since he was eight years old and writing software since he was fourteen. He is the author of http://www.codesimplicity.com/ and http://www.fedorafaq.org/, and is currently living in Northern California. ...more

36 posts
Max Kanat-Alexander's Blog

The Helpful Developer

Over the past few years, we have been so focused on worrying about the future of our own profession that most of us have failed to notice the most important thing that’s about to happen:

Everybody will be able to write software.

This isn’t a theoretical idea. There are already people in HR, Finance, and Sales at companies across the world using AI assistants to write complete computer pr

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Max Kanat-Alexander’s books

Average rating: 3.71 · 797 ratings · 127 reviews · 2 distinct works • Similar authors

	Code Simplicity: The Fundamentals of Software 3.75 avg rating — 617 ratings — published 2012 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Understanding Software: Max Kanat-Alexander on simplicity, coding, and how to suck less as a programmer 3.57 avg rating — 180 ratings — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

Max is Currently Reading

Max Kanat-Alexander is currently reading

Countering Cultural Destruction: Investigations Into What's Wrong And Why

by Roger Westlin

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Oct 04, 2024 03:36AM

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Light Bringer (Red Rising Saga, #6)

by Pierce Brown (Goodreads Author)

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Jun 15, 2024 01:11PM

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Dark Age (Red Rising Saga #5)

by Pierce Brown (Goodreads Author)

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Jun 29, 2023 12:59AM

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Max Kanat-Alexander wrote a new blog post The Helpful Developer Over the past few years, we have been so focused on worrying about the future of our own profession that most of us have failed to notice the most imp Read more of this blog post »
Feb 06, 2026 01:49AM · like
Max Kanat-Alexander is currently reading Countering Cultural Destruction: Investigations Into What's Wrong And Why by Roger Westlin	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Max Kanat-Alexander rated a book really liked it Warriorborn (The Cinder Spires #1.5) by Jim Butcher (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sep 13, 2024 08:02AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Warriorborn by Jim Butcher. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Warriorborn by Jim Butcher <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Max Kanat-Alexander is currently reading Light Bringer (Red Rising Saga, #6) by Pierce Brown (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jun 15, 2024 01:11PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Light Bringer by Pierce Brown. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Light Bringer by Pierce Brown <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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Quotes by Max Kanat-Alexander (?)

“Some of the best programming is done on paper, really. Putting it into the computer is just a minor detail.”
― Max Kanat-Alexander, Code Simplicity: The Fundamentals of Software

tags: programming

17 likes

“The purpose of software is to help people.”
― Max Kanat-Alexander, Code Simplicity: The Fundamentals of Software

tags: laws, software

2 likes

“You must not design by committee. The result will be an actively bad design — one which makes things more complex instead of simpler.”
― Max Kanat-Alexander, Code Simplicity: The Fundamentals of Software

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