.The Tao of Programming is a book written in 1987 by Geoffrey James. Written in a tongue-in-cheek style spoof of classic Taoist texts such as the Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzi which belies its serious message, it consists of a series of short anecdotes divided into nine "books":[1]

The Silent Void

The Ancient Masters

Design

Coding

Maintenance

Management

Corporate Wisdom

Hardware and Software

Epilogue

Geoffrey James wrote two other books on this theme, The Zen of Programming (978-0931137099) in 1988 and Computer Parables: Enlightenment in the Information Age (978-0931137136) in 1989