1. I wrote a book. That means, once again, I need help from my Twitter friends. <THREAD>

2. I need help with two things - coming up with a title, and possibly becoming part of a book launch team. I'm just learning about book launch teams, and I'm told they're fun, awesome, making of BFFs for life and such. I don't see how that's possible. But maybe.

3. Several people here (and perhaps a bot or two, who knows) made title suggestions last time. Possum Lover @claudester came up with the title! https://twitter.com/claudester/status/1169728780253966336

4. That book released last month. It's $3 on kindle. The cover photo shows how I spent spring break in college. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087T7TCC9 

5. The story behind that book is important to the story behind THIS book, so I'm afraid I gotta start there. And I promised @ellyn_gesell and @100FrogLegs I would, so... https://twitter.com/ellyn_gesell/status/1257163058922872832

6. Here's the "it was a dark and stormy night" part. Bear with me. 'twas February in Minnesota, so dark and stormy night covers it.
@KaraFerguson @grmpyprogrammer

7. So yes I wrote a manuscript. It was boring but I knew that. To paraphrase @jk_rowling's advice to an author lamenting that she couldn't write like J.K. Rowling: you don't need to write like Rowling or Stephen King. Those bases are already covered. You need to be you.

8. Only you can be you. So I wrote the boring book, me being me. Thank goodness only my editor @omerida saw that one. Have any of you read (or watched) The DaVinci Code? Or National Treasure? Or National Treasure, Book of Secrets?

9. You think you're at the answer and it turns out to be a clue. Off you go on the next quest, with the demons, daemons, assorted bad guys hot on your trail. But you better hang on to that last clue and carry it with you. You're gonna need it.

10. What was the clue? The realization that I think differently from most people. And, funny thing, quite a few people HERE think differently from the general population as well.

11. Some of us identify as neurodiverse. Some identify as autistic. Some are awfully good at recognizing patterns. @JillEHughes has it in her bio, @jbadomics has discussed it in person, @SirBedivier advocates, and so on.

12. In the new book, I call it "finding patterns in the noise." I use a trip to the NSA as my example - and take advantage of Chris Nethery pointing out to me that that night was a perfect example of Horseshoe Theory at play.

13. But the whole point is about thinking differently. That first book became the things that I can share because I do think differently from most. The so-called "fizz buzz test" came to exist because people have trouble with it - but I don't.

14. I realized that's because I think differently. Is that different way of thinking something that I can teach? Yup. Thus the book! I had to look at the meaning behind the meaning to realize what was important.

15. Or, put differently, I knew what was important but it took months to articulate why. When I reached that point, I knew I had a book!

16. However, there remains a problem, and that's the SECOND thing I'm asking here. A launch team. That $3 kindle book languishes there all by itself - and that's the lesson. It has zero reviews.

17. The word on the street is that a book needs twenty reviews before amazon takes it seriously and begins exposing and cross-selling it. That's a key reason for the launch team. Buzz and promotion, but actually write and post honest book reviews.

18. That didn't happen with the first one (but no doubt will eventually) but the second one is so closely connected to the people here that I wanted to tell the story.
@phparch

19. The new book is about learning the craft of software development - and doesn't contain a single line of code (except for historical purposes).

20. Gary Vaynerchuk @garyvee gives a piece of advice. If you can find the audio version of his book "Crushing It" where Gary himself reads it to you, listen in! His own talent is riffing on the spot, and it's perfect. He says, "Go with your DNA."

21. Write a freakin book? Video is the thing these days. But Gary said, go with your DNA. J.K. Rowling said, you be you. But I look at things differently from everyone else... yeah, THAT IS THE POINT. (That's my Eric Garland font, by the way.)

22. Cal Evans @calevans taught me to "spin a good yarn." So the whole book is just telling the stories. It's everything I wished that I had learned in high school - so I made it suitable for high school age on up.

23. What does climbing a mountain have to do with software development? Stephanie Evans @hmsevans took a huge risk and, in front of a lot of people, taught me that one. She crossed an ocean. I finally made the connection, and it's the first three chapters of the book.

24. So how does one teach the craft of software development? By taking The Story of Mel, well known to @ieatkillerbees, and coming up with insights even she hasn't yet seen. Use the insights to show a way of thinking, of problem analysis. Show the thinking.

25. And, funny thing, Cal is right. Explain the thinking by spinning a good yarn. I just dropped a bunch of very prominent names. I've learned a lot from each of these people - and that's the point too. We're in this together. Community is central to anything meaningful.

26. So, point one, I need help with a title. I have a pair of ideas, but let me explain the book. You already know it's about sharing a way of thinking - and specifically, a love of the craft. I mentioned the mountain part, so I can skip that. Life skills embedded there.

27. But the second part.... It's pure @wokyleeks bait. It derives from a talk by @ieatkillerbees. All is not well in Silicon Valley. Sure, the attorneys general are lining up and taking a number, but it's the history that's... weirdly interesting.

28. But - no surprise to anyone here, especially @LincolnsBible, that brings us to the mob. And the mob used encrypted communications! That brings us to Elizebeth Friedman but not to the NSA! Jason Fagone @jfagone did amazing research here.

29. I did NOT know that digital computers, modern computing as we know it, came about because... code breaking. The original computers were physically destroyed, their plans burned in a furnace by the inventor himself.

30. But that fact - classified until the 1970s so I had no clue - leads to my part of the story, and parts I heard firsthand. How and why computers work? Nah, just a series of stories. Lots of good yarn.

31. So how in the WORLD do you and I deal with this imbalance of power between us and the likes of google, facebook, amazon, the Bots of Twitter? Amoral corporate power plus being a conduit of asymmetric warfare? Yeah, I have an answer that I've been using for years.

32. I have a pair of possible book titles. But I'm not sure that either would make you want to pick it up and read it. I'm describing the problem to be solved (learning the craft), but not the pain point, the need, that would send someone searching for a book.

33. Title 1: "Wizard Thinking: Learn the Craft of Software Development from a Cray Research Veteran"

34. Title 2: "Learning the Craft of Software Development: A Cray Research Veteran Shares the Secrets"

35. So, the question. (A), any suggestions/discussion for a book title; and (B), has anyone dealt with launching a book, or might be interested in trying that out?
/end

36. The original title from a year-plus ago was: "Epic Computing: A Weird History of How Computers and Software Work". @GravenScott - I wonder if that leads to a better approach? @alephnaught2tog @SirBedivier