The Mythical Man-Month
Essays on Software Engineering
by Frederick P. Brooks · first published 1975
50% recommend47% neutral3% critical
Why HN recommends it
Short, easy-to-read essays on the human side of software projects: why adding people doesn't speed work, team structure like the surgical model, and build one to throw away. Suits managers and engineers alike.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Classic text on the human side of software engineering, containing essays on the management of software teams, projections about how computer languages and tools will evolve, and philosophical speculation. Unlike most other books about computing, Brooks' work has been remarkably enduring, remaining in print for at least four decades. The book is most famous for its statement of Brooks' Law: "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later".
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…10. Or, as Mark Cerny (our producer on Crash) used to tell us, "add one and increase the unit: 1 week = 2 months; 2 months = 3 years; 3 years = you're doomed". For a less anecdotal version, read The Mythical Man Month. (The factor he arrives at is 9.)
on ““It’s done, there is no way back. We tried, we failed”” ↗The Mythical Man-Month. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month It was written 40 years ago, but it is still relevant to today. Its so important to think about how to build effective engineering teams.
on “Ask HN: What's the best computer science book you've read recently?” ↗…databases to that. These are things you can gain a true functional knowledge of in a couple of weeks, and which not knowing might make senior engineers hate working with you. So to mimic the class: The Mythical Man Month Design Patterns - Even if some of the particulars are not as relevant, it still provides a useful framework for thought. Lessons Learned in Software Testing: A Context-Driven Approach I'd also add…
on “Ask HN: What are the books you wish your colleagues had read?” ↗Three boks I'll recommend you read as soon as possible. 1) The Mythical Man month 3) The Pragmatic Programmer 3) Code Complete. The thing about these books, well atleast 1 and 3 is that when they were written they broke new ground. Or if that phrase bother you, they were the first…
on “Ask HN: Books you should have read when you start a career in SE / CS?” ↗…have aspects of business productivity books, with well-known common-sense ideas, like In Search of Excellence (which made up case studies, and a co-author said what's the problem?) Even Fred Brooks' Mythical Man-Month - informed by his leadership of the massive bet-the-company "360" project at IBM - lacks data. It's still great though (in, uh... my subjective opinion, I guess).
on “Software Architecture Guide” ↗…computer scientists - hardly anybody's read it all the way through, people quote bits of it out of context for their own ends and it mostly sits on shelves looking impressive while gathering dust. The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks for tech management. Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy for advertising/marketing industry. Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by the "Gang…
on “Ask HN: What book is considered the bible of your field/industry?” ↗…http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Algorithms-C-Kyle-Loudon/dp/... 9- http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Const... 10- http://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Elements-Reusable-Obje... 11- http://www.amazon.com/The-Mythical-Man-Month-Engineering-Ann... 12- http://www.amazon.com/The-Programming-Language-4th-Edition/d... 13- http://www.amazon.com/The-Standard-Library-Tutorial-Referenc... 14- http://www.amazon.com/API-Design-C-Martin-Reddy/dp/012385003...…
on “I’m writing my own OS” ↗…whatever. Becoming more efficient is never a bad thing. I'd also add books on management and dealing with people: - The Art of Speedreading People - Tieger - Behind Closed Doors - Rothman, Derby - The Mythical Man Month - Brooks - Most if not all the books on Joel Spolsky's "MBA Curriculum": http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FogCreekMBACurriculum...
on “Best Books For a Startup?” ↗…them. For example, the Microsoft Press books form the 90s are great. Debugging the Development Process, Software Project Survival Guide, Writing Solid Code, Rapid Development, and then books like The Mythical Man-Month, and Peopleware. Just a passing familiarity is all I ask. But no. Favored people and 'can't be hit by a bus' people get away with anything, great people with a few rough edges get fired at whim, no guiding…
on “Get Shit Done: The Worst Startup Culture” ↗…like book recommendations often oversample recent writings, which are probably great, but it's easy to forget about the generations of books that have come before that may be just as relevant today (The Mythical Man Month is a ready example). I approach the reading I do for fun the same way, Google a list of "classics" and check for things I haven't read. My go to recommendations: http://www.amazon.com/Structure-Scientific-Revolutions-50th-...…
on “Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?” ↗…string together intents that will be interpreted by AI, but that won't happen soon. Edit: The insights about incidental and inherent complexity is not mine. They were popularised in the great book The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brook that have many insights that are applicable to software development in general apart from those insights that are applicable to writing large operative systems. As the book is 40+ years…
on “Show HN: Skov – A visual programming environment” ↗…textbooks (or popular works like "Gödel, Escher, and Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter) covering the same topics instead of the original papers. Still, these papers are foundational. Finally, I think "The Mythical Man-Month" by Fred Brooks, and "Worse is Better" by Richard Gabriel merit inclusion here, given their influence. This is by no means an exhaustive list. Many -- many -- other worthy papers will surely come to…
on “Ask HN: What is your favorite CS paper?” ↗Curious if you have read Brooks Mythical Man Month (the classic) and/or Augustine's Laws (a personal favorite)?
on “Ask HN: Share with us your experiences from projects you've been involved with” ↗I suggest reading The Mythical Man Month sometime, you're not accounting for the complexity of running such an "n-teams" scheme.
on “Windows 7 patch for Meltdown enabled arbitrary reads and writes in kernel memory” ↗1. Mythical Man Month - obvious reasons 2. Deathmarch: The Complete Software Developer's Guide to Surviving 'Mission Impossible' Projects- also a classic. 3. Thinking fast and slow - a great introduction to biases that will…
on “Ask HN: Books you should have read when you start a career in SE / CS?” ↗