Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mythical Man Month

martinfowler.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 219 posts

Re: Mythical Man Month

#11

Post by teddyh »

alasdair_ wrote: post #8

Notably, his essay “no silver bullet” states that there has never been a new technology or way of thinking or working that has led to a 10X increase in the speed of software development. That was true for almost seventy years until roughly last year. AI is the silver bullet - my output is genuinely 10X what it was before claude code existed.

For your sake I hope that your pay is determined by your “output”, and not your long-term usefulness.

Re: Mythical Man Month

#14

Post by janalsncm »

wewewedxfgdf wrote: post #2

Look, I read it and loved it 25 hyears ago. Fred Brooks wrote that book when they were programming IBM operating systems in assembly language. Times have really, really changed - do not pay attention to the messages of this book unless for historical fun.

Your comment and the OP both mention some things that are outdated about the book. What are those things?

Re: Mythical Man Month

#15

Post by jh00ker »

As a software engineering manager, I always look to staff up a project at the beginning as much as possible, looking for doing as much in parallel up-front as we can. If some things take longer than expected, then I already have a team of engineers with all the context since the project kicked off that can help each other with any longer running tasks. An engineer that has completed a smaller chunk of work can help out with the items on the critical path, for example.

Re: Mythical Man Month

#16

Post by jdw64 »

alasdair_ wrote: post #8

Notably, his essay “no silver bullet” states that there has never been a new technology or way of thinking or working that has led to a 10X increase in the speed of software development. That was true for almost seventy years until roughly last year. AI is the silver bullet - my output is genuinely 10X what it was before claude code existed.

[flagged]

Re: Mythical Man Month

#17

Post by zephen »

gaigalas wrote: post #4
wewewedxfgdf wrote: post #2

Look, I read it and loved it 25 hyears ago. Fred Brooks wrote that book when they were programming IBM operating systems in assembly language. Times have really, really changed - do not pay attention to the messages of this book unless for historical fun.

Our field is full of vague, terrible opinions and useless advice. Arrogant people that think they're better than others. That book isn't, it's built from humility and a rare bright light in this god forsaken field.

The book is good. As you say, the author, Fred Brooks, is not at all arrogant.

Martin Fowler, the author of the blog, may be a bit different than that.

Re: Mythical Man Month

#18

Post by batshit_beaver »

alasdair_ wrote: post #8

Notably, his essay “no silver bullet” states that there has never been a new technology or way of thinking or working that has led to a 10X increase in the speed of software development. That was true for almost seventy years until roughly last year. AI is the silver bullet - my output is genuinely 10X what it was before claude code existed.

10x the amount of code or features =/= 10x the speed of software development.

Re: Mythical Man Month

#19

Post by sutro »

"The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination." -FB

Re: Mythical Man Month

#20

Post by hatsix »

slopinthebag wrote: post #9
alasdair_ wrote: post #8

Notably, his essay “no silver bullet” states that there has never been a new technology or way of thinking or working that has led to a 10X increase in the speed of software development. That was true for almost seventy years until roughly last year. AI is the silver bullet - my output is genuinely 10X what it was before claude code existed.

10x would only be possible if your output was low before Claude Code

I've found that I can have 10x output, so long as I don't expect anyone to review your code...
Post reply on HN