Person
Every book Steve McConnell recommended on podcasts
Key facts
- Steve McConnell has recommended or discussed 3 books on podcasts, as of September 10, 2025.
- Steve McConnell has talked about books on 1 podcast, as of September 10, 2025.
- Those books came up in 1 episode, as of September 10, 2025.
- The book Steve McConnell has mentioned in the most episodes, not counting Steve McConnell's own, as of September 10, 2025: What Got You Here Won't Get You There.
- The latest episode with a book mention from Steve McConnell aired on September 10, 2025.
Updated
Steve McConnell appeared on podcasts to discuss his career, software construction, and leadership concepts. During an interview on The Pragmatic Engineer, McConnell reflected on writing his foundational book Code Complete, explaining that he initially researched the subject for an article before deciding to write a full book himself because he expected such a resource to already exist. He recalled the strong early reviews and unexpected sales the book received upon release, and he noted that writing it felt like gaining three years of professional experience in one year. McConnell also discussed writing his second book, Rapid Development, after the memory of the painful final stage of Code Complete faded. In addition to his own books, McConnell brought up Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter's leadership book What Got You Here Won't Get You There, noting that its insights are aimed at organizational leaders and discussing why technical managers sometimes return to individual contributor roles when their responsibilities change.
Books recommended by Steve McConnell
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Code Complete
Code Complete by Steve McConnell is a comprehensive software construction guide that covers software engineering best practices, debugging, detailed design, and coding style.
Discussed“I thought this book would already have been written by someone and I wanted to see this book so that I could use it as material for an article and uh so I I basically just started doing research and after reading about I think I read about 80 articles and a handful of books I convinced myself that this”
Where to get it
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Rapid Development
Discussed“And uh because the end phase of that was just painful and uh so then I worked for a couple years and the memory of the pain faded and uh I was kind of getting an itch to write something again. And so then I wrote my second book, Rapid Development.”
Where to get it
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What Got You Here Won't Get You There
What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter is a prominent leadership and self-development book focusing on how behavioral habits that lead to initial success can become obstacles at higher career levels.
Discussed“You know, there's a great uh leadership book uh called What Got You Here Won't Get You There. And the the gist of it's really aimed at organizational leaders.”
Where to get it
Books Steve McConnell wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Code Complete with Steve McConnell | The Pragmatic Engineer | 2025-09-10 | 10 |
Other mentions (1: passing, ad reads, own books)
“And uh and so I used that partly to guide what I did on the second book because I had a variety of books I I was interested in writing. And uh the the book that would have made the most sense after code complete would have been design complete.”