Aardvark'd Review

I got my copy of Aardvark'd: 12 Weeks with Geeks this week. This is the documentary that was filmed over the summer at Fog Creek Software , home of Joel Spolsky . Fog Creek hired a team of 4 interns to build Copilot (codenamed Project Aardvark ), a software package that allows for remote computer assistance.

I really liked Aardvark'd. It wasn't perfect, by any means, but the subject matter is esoteric enough that I can't complain too much. It did a good job of giving a flavor of daily life at Fog Creek. It also did a reasonable job of documenting the development process behind Copilot. It was interesting to see the negotiations behind the purchase of copilot.com, the user testing performed on Copilot, and the kinds of issues that the team encountered while demoing Copilot at a trade show. I also enjoyed the segments where the interns were interviewed about where software bugs come from, how programmers react to them, and how they eliminate them. Those scenes rang true to this professional developer, without being beyond the grasp of a layman. Finally, I liked seeing the excitement around the first sale of Copilot and the reactions of the interns as the left for the summer, knowing that their "baby" would continue to grow and develop without them.

In addition to covering Copilot, Aardvark'd also had some coverage of the Y Combinator Summer Founders Program in Boston. These segments were particularly excellent, especially the interviews with Paul Graham . In fact, I thought the segments were so good that Y Combinator should consider funding a documentary completely about the Summer Founders Program for 2006.

Aardvark'd did have some weak points. The main problem was the use of too much irrelevant filler material. The film was 80 minutes long, but I felt that there was only about 60 minutes of real content. Sure, it's nice to include a few clips not directly related to the subject matter, just to give the viewer a slice of life at Fog Creek. But Aardvark'd went overboard. It got tedious hearing about the cockroaches the interns found in the bathroom, the party that got shut down by the landlord, the debate over whether it was possible to jump out of the window to the next building, and (especially) the tomatoes growing on the balcony. One or two of these scenes might have been acceptable, but combined, it made it feel like the director was really stretching to reach the 80 minute mark.

Still, if you are the kind of person that would be interested in a documentary about 4 geeks building a commercial software product over one summer, then these weaknesses are easily overlooked, and I strongly recommend purchasing a copy of the DVD. Nice job Fog Creek and Boondoggle Films !