Book Review: Code Is For Humans

Instead of imagining that our main task as programmers is to instruct a computer what to do, let us concentrate instead on explaining to human beings what we want a computer to do.

Donald Knuth

Code Is For Humans - A Guide To Human-Centric Software Engineering

As the subtitle indicates, this book puts the human at the center of software engineering. It argues that our real challenge is not just to make computers do the right thing, but to make the code clear and manageable for the people who work with it.

A major theme is complexity, especially the cognitive load our design decisions can create or reduce. Jackson shows how choices in architecture, naming, and structure can either help developers reason about a system or make it harder to understand.

The book examines complexity from different angles, always with the same focus: its impact on people.

If you’ve read other books on software engineering and design, this one offers a valuable and different perspective. It’s definitely worth reading.