I just finished watching Aardvark’d, a short movie by Lerone Wilson about four summer interns creating a cool software app. The interns were gathered in the NYC offices of Fog Creek software last summer by CEO Joel Spolsky, and given the task to build the application from scratch, create the marketing materials, pitch the product at a trade show, and of course, ship the bits before they headed back to school. The movie documents the entire experience and is well worth watching.

I have to tell you up front that I am not a big fan of reality TV and think the whole Trump thing is over-rated. The movie turns this entirely around: there are no scripted performances, the bad hair is on the geeks and is real, not some ill-fitting rug. The geeks are as real as they get. Watching it with a fellow geek, we were both transported back to our college days and enjoyed the video.

You see the four geeks-in-training being mentored by Spolsky and his staff and making mistakes and having fun, or at least fun by geek standards. More importantly, you see them learning how to build a commercial product.

The scene where the interns try to figure out whether they can safely jump to a nearby building are hilarious. And I loved the office set up: each workstation is a minimalist Ikea desk combined with Aeron chair and dual-screen LCD monitors. You get to see the team camaraderie form over the summer, and see first hand how they learn how to create a product and work through the many issues to get ready to ship.

The movie is both poignant and amusing, and often at the same time. If you ever wondered how software is created, wonder no more. And if you want a benchmark to compare how your hi-tech company operates vs. someone who knows what they are doing and doing it well, then this flick is for you. You can order a copy here.