The Mythical Man-Month

Among non-fiction what stood out to me was David Bentley Hart's All Things are Full of Gods, great book also very fun to read written as a Platonic dialogue. To me one of the most compelling theologians today. Bruno Maçães, World Builders. Good book on the impact of technology in geopolitics has been consistently interesting. Among fiction re-read a lot of Lovecraft, noticed that I like the Dream Quest stories more than the horror these days which surprised me. But they're more compelling to me now because of how much you can see Lovecraft as a person in them. The last three Dune books. Liked the last two about the Bene Gesserit a lot, was surprised how much I disliked God Emperor given the praise it gets, but it honestly reads like Frank Herbert posting twitter hot takes as a worm with no story Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger. Among the best novellas I've ever read, very different in tone from most of his books. Shūsaku Endō, Silence. Book about a Jesuit mission in early Edo Japan. My favorite Japanese book in a long time.…

Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold https://codehiddenlanguage.com/ Algorithms to Live by: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths Mythical Man Month by Frederick Brooks

The C programming language (ansi edition) - I had it before even leaning how to program properly. The explanations was so clear you could work out the examples with pencil and papers Mystical man-month and the pragmatic programmer. The former gave insight about managing a team, the other about managing yourself. Currently I’m reading: Unit Testing: Principles, Practices, and Patterns by Vladimir Khorikok Designing Data Intensive Application by Martin Kleppman And very recently completed Learning Domain-Driven Design by Vlad Khononov I think the three are quite good too

I would split the books into two categories: those that improve the way you structure your code and deliver a software solution, and those that improve your technical understanding of the software platform and the computer you're using. The first are books like Pragmatic Programmer, Mythical Man Month, Code Complete, Design Patterns, talks by Alan Kay on software systems and OOP, even Game Engine Architecture etc. A lot of the content there is distilled experience which is much faster to learn from a book than gain the hard way on the job. The other books are practical deep dives. Here I would recommend a variety of books like Inside the Machine by Stokes, Computer Architecture by Hennessy, 21st Century C by Klemens, Crafting Interpreters by Nystrom, Compilers by Aho, Effective Java, Nature of Code by Shiffman, Ray Tracing Challenge by Buck, Hands on Hacking by Hickey, and others, depending on your interest and area of focus.

Depends on the audience. Generally, it's always "Getting Things Done" and "So Good They Can't Ignore You". For fellow programmers it's "Clean Coder" and "The Pragmatic Programmer". And I always wish my managers and tech leads read "The Mythical Man-Month".

1. Winnie the Pooh to kids on their third or fourth or fifth birthday. 2. The Mythical Man Month to non-tech bosses. 3. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress to girlfriends (it's a test). 4. "Get It Together: Organize Your Records So Your Family Won't Have To" to 70+ old friend (single) and 70+ old sister (single).

Heart of darkness is very short and fits into those great books like L'Etranger and the Old Man and the Sea that can be usefully read in an afternoon and give back way more than they demand from you. Republic is quite long but very approachable and I really enjoyed it. Again the mythical man month still holds true and it very readable. It's interesting for anyone interested in computing history as well as for it's key points on management.

In software: Could plausibly have read, but also likely to blindly recommend without having read them (I've done that myself, only ever skimmed either): The Mythical Man Month, Code Complete. Very unlikely to have read: Knuth's Art of Computer Programming. (I'm moderately sure Donald Knuth has read these, but beyond that, dubious. Personally I've read their titles on a shelf three times now.)

Peopleware and Mythical Man-Month

In my opinion, it's as much a "recommended read" as a lot of other so-called "classics": - Rapid Application Development (also by McConnell) - Soul of a New Machine by Kidder - Mythical Man Month by Fred Brooks - Programming Pearls by John Bentley - Applied Cryptography (2e) by Bruce Schneier - The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stohl - Structured Computer Organization by Tanenbaum & Todd - Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by Gamma, Helm, etc - A New Kind of Science by Wolfram And many more could be added to this list Sure, some of them use acronyms or reference technology that you've either never heard of or has been supplanted But you could [nearly] do a find-and-replace on those "outdated" terms with a "current" term, and the books would [effectively] be up-to-date Don't get hung-up on specific examples - they're just there to illustrate the problem domain

What? Tons of books get new editions. It happens constantly. For example, Strunk & White [0] has been updated in 1918, 1959, 1999, and 2009. Authors release different versions of their own books. I just wrote a review of a book [1] that had a 2nd edition released in 2022 after the first edition was released in 2014. J.R.R. Tolkein retconned The Hobbit after publication of Lord of the Rings. [2] (I realize this isn't really the same thing but I wanted to give an example in fiction) Anyway, point is, tons of books are changed after publication. I don't see why The Mythical Man Month shouldn't be; the technology is out of date and the gender issues are out of date. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style [1] https://www.amazon.com/Everybody-Writes-Improved-Go-Ridiculo... (https://www.amazon.com/Everybody-Writes-Improved-Go-Ridiculously/dp/1119854164) [2] https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2012/12/13/how-jrr-tolkien-pull... (https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2012/12/13/how-jrr-tolkien-pulled-a-george-lucas-on-the-hobbit)

The book's nearly 50 years old. Most books not written very recently are not going to adhere to contemporary values and mores. If you're not willing to offer generosity when reading them and pick the useful part and discard the parts that haven't aged well, then you're going to miss out on a lot of very worthwhile reading.

I thought this book was really fun to read, but it mostly reinforced what I already knew. The problem is my managers don’t, so having read the book doesn’t actually help in any way.

Hiya, I'd consider these books/articles/podcasts: * Secrets of Consulting by Gerald Weinberg: http://geraldmweinberg.com/Site/Consulting_Secrets.html Every problem is a people problem. * Refactoring by Martin Fowler et. al: https://martinfowler.com/books/refactoring.html talks about how and why to refactor, as well as providing a nomenclature for the process. * Code Complete by Steve McConnell. https://stevemcconnell.com/books/ A bit dated (the last version I could find was from 2004) but a great overview of the entire software process, from requirements to maintenance. * The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brookes: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/mythical-man-month-the/... (https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/mythical-man-month-the/0201835959/) best practices about software development, written about a project from the 1960 and 1970s. * The Joel On Software Strategy Letters: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/05/12/strategy-letter-i-... (https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/05/12/strategy-letter-i-ben-and-jerrys-vs-amazon/) is the first one. All of them (I think there are five) are great.…

I have all of these on my shelf. Fantastic reads. * Extreme Programming Explained by Kent Beck * Clean Code and The Clean Coder by Robert C. Martin * Soft Skills by John Sonmez (1st edition) * Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas * Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael Feathers * The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick Brooks (Selfish plug) Additionally, I wrote my own book concerning the entire industry, from just starting out to becoming a self employed consultant when you get sick of fulltime work - all soft skills from my decade or so of the industry, as well - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B43V1JJW

I got a ton of value out of “Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams”. Even if you’re not a manager that can directly follow the advice, as an engineer it will provide great clues on how to ensure environment and team dynamics can greatly influence efficiency and chances of success. Of course my all time favorite is The Mythical Man-Month. But that’s already mentioned elsewhere in this thread. I haven’t read “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” but some of the concepts it talks about are also of interest (on how to ensure workers are motivated and I’m not talking about “the beatings will continue until morale improves” :) )

Physics: Feynman's lectures on physics. Maths: Rudin's Real and Complex analysis. Software engineering: The Mythical Man-Month. Computer science: Knuth's TAOCP.

The Mythical Man Month, Brooks. Probably more than 200 pages, but you can read the chapters as stand-alone essays. There are other good books about programming as a social activity, but everyone who does development for a living should read this one.

I think this is a more complicated question that it first appears. What do you mean by leadership? Getting things done for some strict definition? Managing a team? Managing a huge enterprise? I think reading books across the spectrum of leadership and management is critical, as each gives you some feeling of the underlying “truth” that you’re trying to find. I think the best book on the topic as I think you mean it is High Output Management by Andy Grove. It’s a classic. Incredibly well written. Direct. From there, I’d actually take a pivot and read MCDP 1 Warfighting, which is concise, brilliant, generally applicable, and completely aligned with the thinking of Grove. Along the same lines, I’d consider reading about OODA (I like “Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War” but not strictly necessary to read an entire biography). I think then you start to see that “Management” began to mean something particular in the post-war era for those who could see it, that it’s been lost in most organizations. Agile, lean, blah blah blah is all sort of derived from here.…

Managing the Unmanageable, a second vote for Peopleware, The Mythical Man-Month, and The Conviction to Lead https://b3n.org/programming-management-leadership-books/

"Kelly: More than My Share of it All" - Clarence "Kelly" Johnson : A personal narrative of the world's greatest aircraft designer "The Mythical Man-Month" - Fred Brooks : A classic book of software engineering but it is so much more. If you have aspirations of becoming an effective manager, you need this book. "Flight: My Life in Mission Control" - Chris Kraft : A book about the early space program written by the man who literally wrote the book on how spaces missions were to be conducted.

> recommend "The Mythical Man Month" But be prepared to come away very depressed than a book that's now 44 years old contains wisdom that none of the people who ought to have absorbed it have.

There are many books which sound good in theory but I think my younger self would not have been able to make use of the wisdom in those books because I did not have the experience to relate to what the book was talking about. Nevertheless, if I had to ignore this factor, I too, like many others in this thread, recommend "The Mythical Man Month". However, I think, it's more important to figure out what one wants from life than to just better one's craft. Of course if that is what you want in life, then indeed pursuing that makes sense. I'm also tempted to recommend "Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse and "The Consolations of Philosophy" by Alain de Botton.

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 affect your thinking in any project. 4. The Art of War - strategy and tactics for attacking any problem. My personal favorite translation is by Thomas Cleary.

1. The Mythical Man Month. Quite old, but still a classic. 2. Dilbert. This comic series is an excellent introduction into how corporations actually work. 3. The Systems Bible. Somewhat obscure. Fascinating ideas on how large systems, both technical and organizational, actually work.

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 mainstream publications that brought their core ideas to developers. Reading these books early in your career will help cement these best practices. Reading these books after you've been a practicing programmer means,IMHO, that the return you get from reading them goes way way down. You'll find that you've already learned all/most? of what they are trying to teach. You'll find yourself getting frustrated that they are preaching what you already know as common sense and first principles. Or put another way, I'm not sure there is much that someone who has programmed for 5-10 years can get out of those books that they haven't picked up somewhere else already or learned the hard way.

Mythical Man Month

All in no particular order.... As a Unix systems engineer, I would choose 1. W.R. Stevens books on Unix and Tcp/ip. 2. Rochkind's Advanced UNIX Programming. 3. Most of the Unix/Linux manual pages. 4. Bash FAQ As a Unix systems programmer I would choose 1. Mythical Man Month 2. Jon Bentley's Programming Pearls. 3. K&R C and Stroustrup C++ 4. A recent Java reference and Bloch's Java Puzzlers 5. a reference and cookbook for the language of your choice -- Python, Ruby, Perl, etc. 6. Google's style guides

There is a class at Georgia Tech I colloquially referred to as "making sure your coworkers don't hate you." It covered design patterns, software testing, and project management. I'd tack on a basic knowledge of 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 Harry Potter & The Methods of Rationality. A lot of engineers can think empirically, but its not their first reaction. Going through this book helped make it second nature for me. Can't remember if a certain data structure is immutable? Now I'll write a couple of lines of code to see rather than go looking for documentation. A lot of big problems start as false assumptions. Having the instinct to think to test them and knowing how to will prevent a lot of wasted effort, regardless of your role.…

* Douglas Hofstadter - Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid * Fred Brooks - Design Of Design * Fred Brooks - The Mythical Man month * Eric J. Evans - Domain Driven Design * Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software * Kent Beck - Extreme Programming Explained * Kent Beck - Planning Extreme Programming * Michael C. Feathers - Working Effectively with Legacy Code * Daniel Kahneman - Thinking, Fast and Slow [EDIT] Correct the author for legacy code

- The Pragmatic Programmer - The Practice of Programming - The Mythical Man Month - The Cathedral and the Bazaar - The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Introduction to Algorithms - Hackers and Painters Some of these do contain mixed language code examples, but they are expressed in a way to be agnostic. A problem is a problem; in any language.

The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth is probably the closest to an actual bible for 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 of Four" for OOP software engineering.

In context of software development these books (and other works by same people) might be interesting. I have not read them all yet but have been recommended by a colleague. My perspective is defined by being a developer in circa 100 people company. * The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month * Facts and fallacies of software engineering by Robert L. Glass https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._Glass * Lessons learned from 25 years of process improvement: The Rise and Fall of the NASA Software Engineering Laboratory https://www.cs.umd.edu/users/basili/publications/proceedings... (https://www.cs.umd.edu/users/basili/publications/proceedings/P94.pdf)

My favourites are more about the general craft of software development than specifics e.g. The Pragmatic Programmer: Hunt and Thomas The Mythical Man Month: Frederick Brooks

The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering

Mathematics is probably "theoretical" enough? A good Discrete Mathematics text, Perhaps some others. He'll have some mathematics knowledge around which to orient his programming. And people have been learning math for a long time -- meaning, long before computers. Related, a good book on logic, including logic as implemented in circuits. I recall a fairly intense "computer science survey course" back in college, that started with and, or, not gates and built up through adders, etc, to an ACU. Introduced a pseudo assembly language. I forget how far it continued beyond that. Something like that book I can see doable in good part on paper and in thinking, and it would provide some fundamental background that many programmers don't have or don't retain. It might also be helpful to give him a good, concise book on project management. So that he has some idea what people are talking about when he encounters the work environment.…

Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture by Martin Fowler helped me make the jump from small systems built for myself to large, sophisticated systems built for others. The Mythical Man Month by Fred Brooks really helped me learn to think about large projects from a personnel and planning perspective. There are some ideas there that have become part of the CS canon; "no silver bullet" and the slightly sexist but accurate metaphor for throwing more people at an overdue project, "nine women can't make a baby in one month." The Mythical Man Month was written in 1975, but it holds up remarkably well.

I would recommend a classic that you haven't read that isn't directly about a specific programming language, since it would seem to me that the virtue of reading a book about a specific language when you aren't in front of a computer is dubious. (Note I didn't say it had no virtue, I just find it dubious. YMWV.) Already mentioned is Code Complete and The Pragmatic Programmer. I'd add The Mythical Man Month, still a classic, but note that's a relatively short book and may not last long enough. (A depressing read in some ways; decades have passed and what's in the book is arguably common wisdom, yet I still encounter the errors outlined in that book every year.) Godel, Escher, Bach (mentioned by caffeine) is a love it or hate it book; check out a couple of summaries and see what you think. Personally, I don't recommend the SICP unless you're actually working through the exercises to some extent, and without a computer it's too easy to think you understand it when you don't. If you have already read all those, well, I'd suggest replying and saying so. :)

The Mythical Man Month is an IT management classic that's worth its time, though I can't say that I've read a dearth of management books.

On my desk: Getting Real (37Signals), Hardball (Chris Mathews), Prioritizing Web Usability (Jakob Nielsen) Nearby shelf: The Design of Everyday Things, Maverick, Founders at work, A Brief History of Time, A Pattern Language, Peopleware, Made to stick, Web Standards Solutions, Designing Interactions, The Pragmatic Programmer, The Mythical Man-Month, Oh, the Places You'll Go! Other good reads: Blink, Tipping Point, Long Tail, Freakonomics

* The Pragmatic Programmer * Becoming a Technical Leader * In Search of Stupidity * Hackers & Painters * Blockbusters * Joel on Software: And on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and Managers, and to Those Who, Whether by Good Fortune or Ill Luck, Work with Them in Some Capacity * The Best Software Writing I * Behind Closed Doors * Managing Humans * The Mythical Man-Month * Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams * The Non-Designers Design Book * Founders at Work * Good to Great * Dreaming in Code * The Art of the Start * Maverick * The Design of Everyday Things * The Art of Project Management * The Art of Innovation

Founders at Work (of course) "Best Practices"-type books that cover the tools and technology the startup is using, whether its Textmate, Unix, Subversion, 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... (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FogCreekMBACurriculum.html)

A few sort of random selections from my bookshelf (in no particular order): * GEB:EGB - Hofstader * The Pragmatic Programmer - Hunt / Thomas * Peopleware - DeMarco / Lister * The Mythical Man Month - Brooks * Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming - Norvig * Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind - Miyazaki

For fiction, I'm surprised no one has mentioned: The Dune series by Frank Herbert. Unlike anything else I've read, and one of the most compelling and detailed fictional universes in literature. The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. Don't confuse it for fantasy - it's brilliant satire. Littered with geeky references and clever wordplay, I actually enjoy it a bit more than the Hitchhiker's Guide books. If you like Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett is a pretty safe bet. Anything by Stanislaw Lem - clever and funny science fiction. A good match for my weird sense of humour. All of the above can slightly change the way you see the world. For non-fiction, another vote for the Mythical Man Month.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. It is arguably the most useful book I've ever read, albeit with the most embarassing title. As inklesspen mentioned, Elements of Style is a must. Code Complete and the Mythical Man Month by Fred Brooks. Timeless coding wisdom. For a laugh, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, or Hitchhiker's Guide. Body Language, Julius Fast. Kitschy but fascinating insights into body language. Fabric of the Cosmos, Brian Greene. Brian is a fluke of nature--a physicist who can explain things realy well! Anything by Phillip K. Dick. Sci-fi stories that make you think.

In fiction: Bridge of Birds, by Barry Hughart. Easily some of the best storytelling I've ever read. 1/3 comedy, 2/3 adventure, in an ancient China that never was. http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0345321383/ Homer's epics. I prefer the translation by W.H.D. Rouse, which you can find at http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0451527372/ and http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0451527364/ Heading even further back in time, I love this rendition of Gilgamesh: http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0618275649/ Even in 2000 BCE they thought the world was ancient. Lady of Mazes by Karl Schroeder has one of the best treatments of post-singularity life (and what makes life in general worth living) that I've ever read: http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0765350785/ Nonfiction: The Mythical Man-Month. A little dated (it's directed at mainframe developers and their managers) but still relevant. The Elements of Style (Strunk and White). Learn to write clearly -- it's valuable no matter what you do. Programming Erlang: Software for a Concurrent World. Easily the best programming text I've read in the last year, and it's sold me on Erlang.

My list, categorized: Business & Management 1. Innovator's Dilemma and Innovator's Solution by Clayton Christensen 2. Built to Last and Good to Great by Jim Collins. Built to Last is more applicable for startups. 3. Mythical Man Month by Fred Brooks. Anyone who has to manage a team of programmers and hasn't read this will fail utterly, unless they've already failed before (or been on a failing team). There's a lot that's counterintuitive about software project management. 4. Peter Drucker's work. Kinda long and repetitive, but some good insights. Marketing 1. All Marketers are Liars by Seth Godin. I like this better than Purple Cow, Guerilla Marketer's Handbook, and The Big Red Fez. Most of those have fairly obvious stuff. 2. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell 3. Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore Technical 1. Building Scalable Websites by Cal Henderson 2. High Performance MySQL by Jeremy Zawodny 3. Pragmatic Programmer by...well, it's mentioned elsewhere here. There are lots of other technical books I like, but most of them aren't directly relevant to the startup I'm building