Fatal Abstraction: Why the Managerial Class Loses Control of Software (W. W. Norton & Company)
Wednesday, 30 April 2025

In this book Darryl Campbell argues that a lot of software has exposed us to immense risk at the societal and the individual levels. He blames “managerial software”: programs created and overseen not by engineers but by professional managers with only the most superficial knowledge of technology itself. Campbell shows how managerial software fails, and when it does what sorts of disastrous consequences ensue, from the Boeing 737 MAX crashes to a deadly self-driving car to PowerPoint propaganda, and beyond. Yet just because the tech industry is currently breaking its core promise does not mean the industry cannot change.  Campbell argues that the solution is tech workers with actual expertise establishing industry-wide principles of ethics and safety that corporations would be forced to follow. 

 

Author: Darryl Campbell
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Date: April 2025
Pages: 320
ISBN: 978-1324078951
Print: 1324078952
Kindle: B0D94XVP7P
Audience: General
Level: Introductory
Category: Methodology

fatalabs

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Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Date: February 2022
Pages: 352
ISBN: 978-0137579938
Print: 0137579934
Kindle: B09D2RKQB5
Audience: Python developers
Rating: 1
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Author: Jim Highsmith
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Pages: 304
ISBN: 978-0137961009
Print: 0137961006
Kindle: B0BXWP88KP
Audience: Adherents of Agile methodology
Rating: 4.5
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