Decline and Fall of the American Programmer
by Edward Yourdon · first published 1992
20% recommend70% neutral10% critical
This book is a refreshing change from the "Silver Bullet" books now on the market. Too often a solution to a single facet of the software delivery process problem is seized upon and touted as the complete answer to analyst/programmer productivity. I agree with Ed that a unified field theory is not yet available (probably never will be) but this work helps define the problem domain boundaries as no book in recent memory."--John Johns, AT & T, Georgia.
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…But, yeah, often it's just bullying to drive a bad bargain. Most management HATES iterative development, because it's too honest. One of my favorite Ed Yourdon quotes: "Vote with your feet" (from "Decline and Fall of the American Programmer, which scared the hell out of me, rightly so in some cases - and after working with off shore development, that scared the hell out of me)
on “Coding, Fast and Slow: Developers and the Psychology of Overconfidence (2013)” ↗…Become Book - Peter Morville 11. Don't Make Me Think - Steve Krug 12. The Design of Everyday Things - Donald A. Norman 13. The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering - Fred Brooks 14. Decline and Fall of the American Programmer - Ed Yourdon 15. Cube Farm - Bill Blunden 16. The Philip K. Dick Reader 17. The Cuckoo's Egg - Clifford Stoll 18. The Prince - Niccolò Machiavelli 19. The 48 Laws of Power - Robert Greene 20. The…
on “Ask HN: What are some must read books for computer programmers?” ↗…https://www.amazon.com/Where-Wizards-Stay-Up-Late/dp/0684832... Open: How Compaq Ended IBM's PC Domination and Helped Invent Modern Computing - https://www.amazon.com/Open-Compaq-Domination-Helped-Computi... Decline and Fall of the American Programmer - https://www.amazon.com/Decline-American-Programmer-Yourdon-1... Rise and Resurrection of the American Programmer - https://www.amazon.com/dp/013121831X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&key... Accidental Empires:…
on “Ask HN: Material on early computing history and innovation?” ↗Wow, to think it's been almost 30 years since I wasted money on Decline and Fall of the American Programmer. Too bad it was the first Yourdon book I'd read, because it was also the last.
on “The White-Collar Job Apocalypse That Didn’t Happen” ↗The mouse wheel comes in very handy. I made it to the dumb question at the end. We've heard about the "Decline and Fall of the American Programmer" before? Oh wait, he wrote a followup. http://www.amazon.com/Decline-American-Programmer-Edward-You... http://www.amazon.com/Resurrection-American-Programmer-Yourd...
on “Will you be employable in the next 5 years?” ↗This saturation of demand for software talent has been predicted for literally decades. In 1992, Ed Yourdon published “Decline and Fall of the American Programmer,” only to reverse himself four years later with the publication of “Rise and Resurrection of the American Programmer.” If anything, the rate at which capable software professionals can create value has…
on “Electrical engineers on the brink of extinction threaten entire tech ecosystems” ↗…be black-listed in your community and people will be very leery of ever working for you again. These lessons have been learned and re-learned for the past 30 years now - going back as far as Yourdon's Decline and Fall of the American Programmer - which was published in 1992.
on “Your job was probably outsourced for the reason you suspected” ↗Offshoring has been a thing for decades. Seriously, Yourdon wrote a doom-and-gloom book about it in the 90s. It was called “Decline and Fall of the American Programmer,” published 1992. Then in 1996, he wrote “Rise and Resurrection of the American Programmer.” The software industry is extremely fad-driven. During the pandemic, the fad was to hire programmers. That…
on “Is America's jobs market nearing a cliff?” ↗You asked me a specific question. I said that the reason is the lack of resources. I didn't realize that we were talking about the decline and fall of the Python world. I remember reading "Decline and Fall of the American Programmer." And "Rise and Resurrection of the American Programmer." It's a special kind of consultant who can get paid both coming and going. Python is in decline? How do you reckon that? In my work, Python is…
on “I Am Worried About The Future Of Python” ↗I think you are actually exactly opposite on this. There are actually two books that were written about this very topic, one called "The decline and fall of the American Programmer", which was essentially making your argument, that American quality going down meant we would get eclipsed, and "The Rise and Resurrection of the American Programmer", written by the same author, saying…
on “The C10M problem” ↗…world has a thousand ways to make you question your worth, and you will probably hear most of them at one point or another. When I entered the industry a little book had recently come out called "The Decline and Fall of the American Programmer." It predicted that "the American programmer is about to share the fate of the dodo bird." Yet here we are, decades on, just as likely to bang through projects like bucking broncos as ever, but managing…
on “Ask HN: CS, still a good career in 3-5 years?” ↗Good luck with that. Executives have been trying to do that for decades (“The Decline and Fall of the American Programmer” has been heralded since the 80’s). Even the exhalted Steve Jobs ultimately failed in his cabalistic attempt to hold down programmer pay. It’s like a menagerie of Elmer Fudds and Yosemite Sam’s trying…
on “Will young Americans want to work in semiconductor manufacturing? [video]” ↗