Today I got my copy of Design for Hackers by David Kadavy. I’ve followed the writing and marketing of this book since it showed up on Hacker News months ago. I’ve read the first chapter so far and I’m enjoying it so far. David presents himself as very knowledgeable, but not in an obnoxious way. Instead he seems like he’s genuinely awed by the power and value of design and he’s bursting at the seams to convey that information. I’ll write some more about it when I finish.

One thing I’ve tried to do lately with books is to get the big picture message besides just what the words say. Not every book has one, but here are a couple things I picked out of the first chapter:

• Section headings are in a sans-serif font while text is in serif. I assume this is demonstrating how to separate markup from content.
• Paragraphs are all roughly the same length. This makes the text flow and let me get into a good rhythm while reading.
• The page headers have the chapter number in bold, chapter name in regular, same font. This both unites and distinguishes the parts.

None of these points have been referenced in the book so far, and I don’t if the were intentional or even true. I’m just trying to see what a book about design says about design.

Great job David and I can’t wait to keep reading!