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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

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Max Kanat-Alexander's Blog

An Analogy for Software Development

Sometimes, I have to explain software development to people who are not software developers. Over the years, I have come up with an analogy that explains what software development is like and its processes. I have successfully used it to explain software development to a 9-year-old kid, including advanced concepts like cybersecurity and so forth. I figure others might benefit from it, so here it i

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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

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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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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 An Analogy for Software Development Sometimes, I have to explain software development to people who are not software developers. Over the years, I have come up with an analogy that expla Read more of this blog post »
Mar 07, 2025 01:36AM · 1 like · 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
Oct 04, 2024 03:36AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Countering Cultural Destruction by Roger Westlin. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Countering Cultural Destruction by Roger Westlin <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
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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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