Great Software Debates

Davis presents a set of essays on various aspects of developing software. But these are not at the narrow technical level of purely programming issues. Instead they concern higher level and more intangible matters. Often involving managing a team. Especially interesting was a chapter where Davis delved into a software startup that he cofounded. It gave the travails faced by many startups, and not just in computing. Like how they started in a garage and then upgraded to an unfinished office space. And how the founders shared all sorts of information with their employees. But his company seemed to have two key problems. While they applied for 3 patents, these were ultimately denied by the US Patent and Trademark Office, because others had pre-empted them. So unfortunately, they were not innovative enough. Or, at least, not innovative early enough. Another problem appears to have been the narrow scope of their products. These did not address critical enough problems at potential customers. Resulting in very few sales.