Acknowledgments

In the fall of 2010, with much of the original draft complete, I began pitching this book to several tech publishers. While I received some great feedback, I wasn’t able to land a deal. The prevailing argument from most publishers was twofold: books like this typically don’t sell, and in order to make it a worthwhile investment, I needed a bigger following.

Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas saw things differently. And so, first and foremost, I’d like to thank Andy and Dave for sharing my belief that this book has a place in our industry. I’m absolutely humbled to have it added to the great collection of works from the Pragmatic Bookshelf.

A book like this desperately needs a great editor—one who tells it like it is and sees the content from 1,000 feet above when the author is entangled in the weeds. I’d like to thank Brian P. Hogan for being a fantastic one throughout the entire process. This book is leagues ahead of where it initially was, in both its content and its approach.

A very special thanks to Mark Anderson of Andertoons.com. His creative cartoons—and wit—are strewn all over these pages. They provide a wonderful extra dose of levity and personality to the final product.

Thanks to Derek Sivers, Bob Walsh, Caspar Dunant, Colin Yates, Juho Vepsäläinen, Steve Cholerton, and Kim Shrier for generously donating their time to critically reviewing each and every chapter.

Much of the inspiration for this book came from the experiences I’ve had at We Are Mammoth, the web development shop I started with Craig Bryant in 2006. For the past five years, we’ve continually challenged ourselves, questioned the way we go about our work, and openly exposed our opinions to each other. Thanks to my team—Craig, Michael, Mustafa, Tom, Sam, Anthony, Jennifer, Grant, and Lindsay—for teaching me new lessons daily.