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One of the things that makes MMM so good is how literate it is. It reminds me of the thing that Steve Jobs said was great about Apple, that it combined computin
by gruseom 15y ago
One of the things that makes MMM so good is how literate it is. It reminds me of the thing that Steve Jobs said was great about Apple, that it combined computing and the humanities. That is true of Fred Brooks as well, at least in his writing.
Coincidentally, Brooks made a surprise cameo in this piece about Jobs: http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/10230791/ http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/10230791/
Has anyone read his recent book, The Design of Design? I had high hopes for it, but ran out of steam.
- tjr 15y agoI also had high hopes, but read this first: http://philip.greenspun.com/book-reviews/the-design-of-design http://philip.greenspun.com/book-reviews/the-design-of-desig... and then decided not to buy a copy of the book. I may be wrong, but I've got stacks of stuff to read.
- gruseom 15y agoThanks. What Greenspun says is consistent with what I read of the book. I think its biggest problem is that Brooks has been out of the business for too long; it lacks the buzz of MMM, the connection to real work and hard problems. As Greenspun points out, the only thing like that in the new book is the stuff about Brooks' house, and that's too self-referential. Also the style is kind of bureaucratic and process-y. That's probably why I ran out of steam.
- jerf 15y agoI'd agree with that review. The problem is, by the time you're experienced enough to grok what The Design of Design is trying to tell you, you've already figured out what he's trying to explain, and if you don't already know, mere reading is unlikely to be the thing that finally turns on the lightbulb. Though I did walk away with one interesting insight, which is that when you are designing something one should always ask "What is the limiting factor in my design?", and that one should consider the question quite widely. "Money" or "time" are always the obvious answer, but the analysis should be taken deeper. It may also be something like "the amount of time my customer is willing to spend learning my putatively better design" or "the amount of bandwidth I have between me and my customers" or any number of subtler things. It is always something I was subconsciously considering but there is value in bringing those things to the conscious mind's attention, so you can add them to the mental checklist.
- crikli 15y agoIt strikes me funny how Brooks is mentioned so casually as an area professor as opposed to the living legend that he truly is.