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Joel Spolsky

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Joel Spolsky
Spolsky in 2014
Born1965 (age 59–60)
Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
NationalityAmerican, New Zealand, Israeli, Dual citizenship[1]
Alma materYale University
Occupation(s)Software developer
CEO, Stack Exchange Network
Co-founder, Stack Overflow, Fog Creek Software and Trello
Websitejoelonsoftware.com

Avram Joel Spolsky (born 1965) is a software engineer and writer. He is the author of Joel on Software, a blog on software development, and the creator of the project management software Trello.[2] He was a Program Manager on the Microsoft Excel team between 1991 and 1994. He later founded Fog Creek Software in 2000 and launched the Joel on Software blog. In 2008, he launched the Stack Overflow programmer Q&A site in collaboration with Jeff Atwood. Using the Stack Exchange software product which powers Stack Overflow, the Stack Exchange Network now hosts over 170 Q&A sites.

Biography

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Spolsky was born to Jewish parents and grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and lived there until he was 15.[3] His family then moved with him to Israel, where he attended high school and completed his military service in the Paratroopers Brigade.[3] He was one of the founders of the kibbutz Hanaton in Lower Galilee.[4] In 1987, he returned to the United States to attend college. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania for a year before transferring to Yale University, where he was a member of Pierson College and graduated in 1991 with a BS summa cum laude in computer science.[3]

Spolsky started working at Microsoft in 1991[5] as a program manager on the Microsoft Excel team, where he designed Excel Basic and drove Microsoft's Visual Basic for Applications strategy.[6] He moved to New York City in 1995 where he worked for Viacom and Juno Online Services.[3] In 2000, he founded Fog Creek Software and created the Joel on Software blog.[5] Joel on Software was "one of the first blogs set up by a business owner".[7]

In 2005, Spolsky co-produced and appeared in Aardvark'd: 12 Weeks with Geeks, a documentary documenting Fog Creek's development of Project Aardvark, a remote assistance tool.[8]

In 2008, Spolsky co-founded Stack Overflow,[9] a question and answer community website for software developers, with Jeff Atwood. He served as CEO of the company until Prashanth Chandrasekar succeeded him in the role on October 1, 2019.[10] After Stack Overflow's sale in June 2021 for $1.8 billion, Spolsky stepped down as the company's Chairman.[11]

In 2011, Spolsky launched Trello, an online project management tool inspired by Kanban methodology.[12] The tool was acquired by Atlassian in January 2017 for $425 million.[13]

In 2016, Spolsky announced the appointment of Anil Dash as Fog Creek Software's new CEO, with Spolsky continuing as Stack Overflow's CEO and as a Fog Creek Software board member. The company has since been renamed Glitch.[14] Following its sale to Fastly in May 2022, Spolsky stepped down as Chairman.[15]

salon.com's Scott Rosenberg described one of Spolsky's work as an example of good writing "about their insular world in a way that wins the respect of their colleagues and the attention of outsiders."[16]

Personal life

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In 2015, Spolsky announced his marriage to his husband, Jared, on social media and his blog.[17] In 2015, he reports on his own website that he lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.[17]

Publications

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  • Spolsky, Joel (2001). User Interface Design for Programmers. Apress. ISBN 1-893115-94-1.
  • Spolsky, Joel (2004). Joel on Software: And on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and Managers, and to Those Who, Whether by Good Fortune or Ill Luck, Work with Them in Some Capacity. Apress. ISBN 1-59059-389-8.
  • Spolsky, Joel (2005). The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky. Apress. ISBN 1-59059-500-9.
  • Spolsky, Joel (2007). Smart and Gets Things Done: Joel Spolsky's Concise Guide to Finding the Best Technical Talent. Apress. ISBN 978-1-59059-838-2.
  • Spolsky, Joel (2008). More Joel on Software: Further Thoughts on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and to Those Who, Whether by Good Fortune or Ill Luck, Work with Them in Some Capacity. Apress. ISBN 978-1-4302-0987-4.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Spolsky, Joel; Atwood, Jeff (July 8, 2008). "Stack Overflow podcast #13". Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  2. ^ Joel Spolsky interviewed on the TV show Triangulation on the TWiT.tv network
  3. ^ a b c d Spolsky, Joel (October 30, 2005). "About Joel Spolsky". Joel on Software. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  4. ^ Spolsky, Joel. "Joel Spolsky". joel.spolsky.com. Archived from the original on March 18, 2008. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  5. ^ a b Livingston, Jessica (2007). "Interview: Joel Spolsky Co-Founder, Fog Creek Software". Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days. Apress. ISBN 9781590597149. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  6. ^ "An Interview with Joel Spolsky". SoftLetter.com. Archived from the original on August 9, 2007. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  7. ^ Spolsky, Joel. "How Hard Could it Be". Inc. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  8. ^ "Joel Spolsky". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  9. ^ Atwood, Jeff (April 16, 2008). "Introducing Stackoverflow.com". Coding Horror. Archived from the original on February 3, 2010. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  10. ^ "Announcing Stack Overflow's New CEO". Stack Overflow. September 24, 2019. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
  11. ^ Dummett, Ben (June 2, 2021). "Stack Overflow Sold to Tech Giant Prosus for $1.8 Billion". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on October 29, 2021. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
  12. ^ Spolsky, Joel (January 6, 2012). "How Trello is different". Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  13. ^ Pryor, Michael. "Trello Is Being Acquired By Atlassian". Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  14. ^ Spolsky, Joel (December 6, 2016). "Anil Dash is the new CEO of Fog Creek Software". Retrieved December 11, 2016.
  15. ^ "Fastly announces acquisition of Glitch". May 19, 2022.
  16. ^ Rosenberg, Scott (December 9, 2004), "The Shlemiel way of software", salon.com, archived from the original on June 6, 2011, retrieved January 28, 2014.
  17. ^ a b "About Joel Spolsky". Archived from the original on October 29, 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
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