Aardvark'd

I just finished watching Aardvark'd: 12 Weeks With Geeks, the movie about the development of Copilot at Joel Spolsky's company, Fog Creek Software.

The DVD came out a while ago, but I hesitated to buy it because most of the reviews I had read were not exactly glowing. Now, I'm a little bit sorry that I didn't buy it sooner, because I really liked it.

It seems that many reviewers didn't like the movie largely because it didn't deliver what they expected: an in-depth look at the software development process within Fog Creek. And while this is true, I still found the movie to be extremely interesting and worthwhile.

What I really loved about the movie was getting to see the people behind Fog Creek in-person. For the last few years, I've been reading Joel's thoughts on how to judge developers and about his excruciating selection criteria for Fog Creek employees. Now, I actually get to see the people who have made it through the gauntlet and what they're actually like. I found that quite thrilling.

As a bonus that I wasn't at all expecting, the movie features interviews with Paul Graham and the founders of Reddit, one of my favorite websites. It was fascinating for me to see these people live and (as stupid as this may seem) hear their voices and how they speak.

I also loved seeing the bionic office in Manhattan and the view out its windows.

In short, watching Aardvark'd was like going backstage and meeting the rockstars in my nerdy world. So if you're like me, and you would consider Joel Spolsky, Paul Graham, and Aaron Swartz rockstars (as pathetic as that is) and Fog Creek's office equivalent to Madison Square Garden, I would wholeheartedly recommend Aardvark'd.