Joel Spolsky#Schlemiel the Painter's algorithm

{{Infobox person

| name = Joel Spolsky

| image = Joel Spolsky 2014-06-18 (cropped).jpg

| caption = Spolsky in 2014

| native_name = יואל ספולסקי

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| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1965}}

| birth_place = Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States

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| nationality = American, New Zealand, Israeli, Dual citizenship{{cite web |url=https://stackoverflow.fogbugz.com/default.asp?W13020 |title=Stack Overflow podcast #13 |date=July 8, 2008 |first1=Joel |last1=Spolsky |first2=Jeff |last2=Atwood |author-link2=Jeff Atwood |access-date=August 4, 2013}}

| native_name_lang = he

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| alma_mater = Yale University

| occupation = Software developer
CEO, Stack Exchange Network
Co-founder, Stack Overflow, Fog Creek Software and Trello

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| website = {{URL|joelonsoftware.com/}}

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}}

Avram Joel Spolsky ({{Langx|he|אברם יואל ספולסקי}}; 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.{{Triangulation|277|Joel Spolsky}} 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

Spolsky was born to Jewish parents and grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and lived there until he was 15.{{cite web |url=http://www.joelonsoftware.com/AboutMe.html |title=About Joel Spolsky |first=Joel |last=Spolsky |date=October 30, 2005 |work=Joel on Software |access-date=August 4, 2013}} His family then moved with him to Israel, where he attended high school and completed his military service in the Paratroopers Brigade. He was one of the founders of the kibbutz Hanaton in Lower Galilee.{{cite web |url=http://joel.spolsky.com/ |title=Joel Spolsky |first=Joel |last=Spolsky |work=joel.spolsky.com |access-date=August 4, 2013 |archive-date=March 18, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080318181505/http://joel.spolsky.com/ |url-status=dead }} 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.

Spolsky started working at Microsoft in 1991{{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.foundersatwork.com/joel-spolksy.html |chapter=Interview: Joel Spolsky Co-Founder, Fog Creek Software |first=Jessica |last=Livingston |year=2007 |title=Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days |title-link=Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days |publisher=Apress |isbn=9781590597149 |author-link=Jessica Livingston |access-date=August 4, 2013}} as a program manager on the Microsoft Excel team, where he designed Excel Basic and drove Microsoft's Visual Basic for Applications strategy.{{cite web |url=http://www.softletter.com/SMS_archives/joel_spolsky.shtml |title=An Interview with Joel Spolsky |work=SoftLetter.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070809211704/http://www.softletter.com/SMS_archives/joel_spolsky.shtml |archive-date=August 9, 2007 |access-date=August 4, 2013}} He moved to New York City in 1995 where he worked for Viacom and Juno Online Services. In 2000, he founded Fog Creek Software and created the Joel on Software blog. Joel on Software was "one of the first blogs set up by a business owner".{{cite web |url=http://www.inc.com/magazine/columns/howhardcoulditbe/index.html |title=How Hard Could it Be |work=Inc. |first=Joel |last=Spolsky |access-date=August 4, 2013}}

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.{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2290953/ |title=Joel Spolsky |work=Internet Movie Database |access-date=August 4, 2013}}

In 2008, Spolsky co-founded Stack Overflow,{{cite web |title=Introducing Stackoverflow.com |url=http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001101.html |work=Coding Horror |date=April 16, 2008 |author-link=Jeff Atwood |first=Jeff |last=Atwood |access-date=August 4, 2013 |archive-date=February 3, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100203112658/http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001101.html |url-status=dead }} 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.{{cite web |url=https://stackoverflow.blog/2019/09/24/announcing-stack-overflows-new-ceo-prashanth-chandrasekar/ |title=Announcing Stack Overflow's New CEO |work=Stack Overflow |date=September 24, 2019 |access-date=September 24, 2019}} After Stack Overflow's sale in June 2021 for $1.8 billion, Spolsky stepped down as the company's Chairman.{{cite news|last=Dummett|first=Ben|date=2 June 2021|title=Stack Overflow Sold to Tech Giant Prosus for $1.8 Billion|publisher=Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/software-developer-community-stack-overflow-sold-to-tech-giant-prosus-for-1-8-billion-11622648400|access-date=2 June 2021|archive-date=29 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029175938/https://www.wsj.com/articles/software-developer-community-stack-overflow-sold-to-tech-giant-prosus-for-1-8-billion-11622648400|url-status=live}}

In 2011, Spolsky launched Trello, an online project management tool inspired by Kanban methodology.{{cite web |url=http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2012/01/06.html |title=How Trello is different |date=January 6, 2012 |first=Joel |last=Spolsky |access-date=August 4, 2013}} The tool was acquired by Atlassian in January 2017 for $425 million.{{cite web|url=http://blog.trello.com/trello-atlassian|title=Trello Is Being Acquired By Atlassian|first=Michael|last=Pryor|date=January 9, 2017 |access-date=February 2, 2017}}

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.{{cite web|url=https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2016/12/06/anil-dash-is-the-new-ceo-of-fog-creek-software/|first=Joel|last=Spolsky|date=December 6, 2016|title=Anil Dash is the new CEO of Fog Creek Software

|access-date=December 11, 2016}} Following its sale to Fastly in May 2022, Spolsky stepped down as Chairman.{{cite web |url=https://www.fastly.com/blog/fastly-announces-acquisition-of-glitch-a-future-of-yes-code-at-the-edge |title=Fastly announces acquisition of Glitch |date=May 19, 2022}}

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."{{citation|last=Rosenberg|first=Scott|title=The Shlemiel way of software|date=December 9, 2004|url=http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2004/12/09/spolsky/|work=salon.com|access-date=January 28, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606232329/http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2004/12/09/spolsky/|archive-date=June 6, 2011|url-status=dead}}.

=Personal life=

In 2015, Spolsky announced his marriage to his husband, Jared, on social media and his blog.{{cite web |title=About Joel Spolsky |url=http://www.joelonsoftware.com/AboutMe.html |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151029043806/http://www.joelonsoftware.com/AboutMe.html |archive-date=October 29, 2015 |access-date=27 June 2015}} In 2015, he reports on his own website that he lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Publications

{{cite book |title=User Interface Design for Programmers |publisher=Apress |year=2001 |isbn=1-893115-94-1 |first=Joel |last=Spolsky |url=https://archive.org/details/userinterfacedes00spol }}
{{cite book |title=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 |publisher=Apress |year=2004 |isbn=1-59059-389-8 |first=Joel |last=Spolsky |url=https://archive.org/details/joelonsoftwareon00spol }}
{{cite book |title=The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky |publisher=Apress |year=2005 |isbn=1-59059-500-9 |first=Joel |last=Spolsky |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/bestsoftwarewrit0000unse }}
{{cite book |title=Smart and Gets Things Done: Joel Spolsky's Concise Guide to Finding the Best Technical Talent |publisher=Apress |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-59059-838-2 |first=Joel |last=Spolsky}}
{{cite book |title=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 |publisher=Apress |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-4302-0987-4 |first=Joel |last=Spolsky}}