Episode · The Pragmatic Engineer · 2026-04-08
Books mentioned on DHH’s new way of writing code
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David Heinemeier Hansson recommended Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns by Kent Beck, and discussed Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Man's Search for Meaning
Man's Search for Meaning is a profound psychological memoir by Viktor E.
Discussed“this is all the way back to Victor Frankle the meaning of uh of man finding a why allows you to walk through the snow when it's cold and uncomfortable and annoying”
Where to get it
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Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns
Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns by Kent Beck is a classic programming guide that details granular techniques for structuring methods, classes, and clean code.
Recommended“Small Talk Best Practices is my number one recommendation for any programmer who want to learn the nitty-gritty of how to structure a method and a class and the rest of it. Small Talk Best Practices, which is Kent's book from 95, I think, or 96, is to this day my favorite book of all time on tactical programming uh”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Passing Extreme Programming Explained
“And this was after having read Extreme Programming and many of these other things. Small Talk Best Practices is my number one recommendation for any programmer who want to learn the nitty-gritty of how to structure a method and a class and the rest of it.”