“Human Software” Book Club
At a high level, Human Software is a story about the marginalisation of employees and choosing profit and technology over people. But it’s also about the choices that we make as engineers and as managers every day. Do we need to arrange that meeting? Does everyone need to come in to hear this announcement? Could I send an email rather than getting people together? Should I do this in person rather than sending an email?
So while Human Software is a story for anyone who’s ever stared at a sprint board, joined a 3 AM incident, or wondered whether the company they work for even knows who they are anymore, it is also a novel about responsibility. It asks the question “What happens when we outsource our decision making to others?”
Because we sometimes forget that we still have a part to play – every day no matter what role we are in.
Why Does “Human Software” Resonate and With Whom?
While I was initially inspired by many business books, Human Software isn’t a business book. It’s a story with a moral. I wanted to highlight that software engineers can be principled even if they are working for unprincipaled paymasters. not all about the technology or solving problems for the business, it’s about our interactions and how we treat each other.
Put simply, if the business books like “The Phoenix Project” and “The Goal” show us how we work, Human Software asks why.
For me there are three quite clearly defined audiences for the book:
- Developers & Engineers: Human Software captures the unspoken truth of life inside agile teams doing on-call support and suffering the burnout culture of modern software work.
- Leaders: Human Software holds a mirror to organisational transformation and what happens when we treat people like “resources” rather than humans. For leaders the book can be the most confronting.
- For the non-techie: It’s a hopeful, human story about rediscovering purpose in a world seemingly run by algorithms.
Human Software offers us a perfect chance for us to reconnect with who we are as people.
Perfect for Book Clubs
More and more tech teams are choosing fiction to explore the moral and emotional side of engineering. Human Software is therefore ideally suited for:
- Team book clubs exploring culture, leadership, and ethics around use of AI in coding, in product and strategic decision making.
- Company all-hands discussions about automation, globalisation, and purpose.
- University or bootcamp reading lists connecting tech skills with social awareness.
Praise for Human Software
“Human Software is a genuine heartfelt novel that lets us see what it might be like for technical teams when AI tools are introduced, and one I won’t forget anytime soon.”
— Jeremy Markey, Rands Slack Book Reviewer
“A proper page turner that is part thriller, part whodunnit and a fine dystopian parable.”
— Charles Humble, Tech Consultant and Journalist
Each copy comes with a free downloadable discussion guide to spark meaningful conversations.
👉 Start a Book Club — Get the free guide and order Human Software for your team. Please reach out for details.
👉 Read the First Two Chapters for Free — Sign up here to get the first three chapters of Human Software for free
👉 Contact the Author — Invite to speak at your next engineering offsite or all-hands. Get in touch here.