David Heinemeier Hansson

David Heinemeier Hansson is a Danish programmer, entrepreneur, and author best known as the creator of the Ruby on Rails web framework and as co-owner of the software company 37signals, makers of Basecamp and HEY. He is currently the CTO of 37signals, a New York Times best-selling co-author of business books like “REWORK,” and a class-winning endurance racing driver who has competed multiple times in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Products they talk about

Civilization 1👍 Recommends
…discussing childhood influences and world-building interests that shaped leadership
“My favorite game of all time is Civilization 1, the original Sid Meier's game. Which is obviously about world building.”
on My First Million
Extreme Programming👍 Recommends
…discussing influential software development thinkers and methodologies
“Kent Beck is the author of Extreme Programming, one of the heretical software methodologies back in the 90s when everyone was stuck on rational or the waterfall method. I saw Kent Beck on stage in 2001 at a Danish conference have complete command of the room as he delivered his sermon on software methodology and I was just in awe.”
on My First Million
Getting Real👍 Recommends
…reflecting on 37signals' early books and their lasting relevance
“Getting Real, the first book, that manifesto from 99, Rework from 2010. A lot of that stuff still holds up because it's focused on fundamentals and focused on extracting lessons from our work producing something that was worthwhile and lasted.”
on My First Million
Smalltalk Best Practices👍 Recommends
…highlighting influential programming books and their lasting impact on coding style
“My favorite book on the nitty-gritties of programming is a small book he wrote in the 90s called Smalltalk Best Practices. It's a quite short book and it is the most influential book on how I write software that I've ever read. It still totally holds up in this day and age from a language most people are not programming in Smalltalk.”
on My First Million