John Ousterhout Reflects on "A Philosophy of Software Design"

In this special episode of Book Overflow, Dr. John Ousterhout joins Carter and Nathan to discuss his book "A Philosophy of Software Design." He reflects on why he wrote the book, how he teaches the principles in it to his Stanford students, and what we can learn from our mistakes.

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00:00 Intro

01:18 Motivation for writing this book

06:17 Why No TAs for Stanford Class

08:55 Thoughts on TDD

14:24 Design it Twice

20:30 Most Surprising Feedback

31:46 Taking suggestions with a grain of salt

33:20 Curiosity and Humility

36:13 Misunderstandings from the book

39:37 Strong opinions, humility, and fear of being wrong

44:35 Unconventional Career Paths

50:13 What are you reading?

51:22 Thoughts on Clean Code

53:50 Advice for new software engineers

58:00 Closing Thoughts