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Fred Brooks has died
- fsckboy 4y agoFred Brooks, a mythic figure, who lived a couple days shy of a very productive 1099 man-months. RIP.
- quonn 4y agoBrooks and Knuth (fortunately still with us) are not only respected but also loved. I sometimes miss this in our field where sometimes success is valued more than a great mind and a great mind more than a lovable well-rounded person.
- quantified 4y agoThe Mythical Man-Month is one of the seminal works on software engineering practice. It has held up extremely well over time. If I have to jettison professional books over time for whatever reason, it'll be in the last box /shelf I retain.
- larryfromtexas 4y agoThat book was a window into the mind of a true software engineer and one of the best things I have read generally. RIP.
- SoftTalker 4y agoHis No Silver Bullet paper is another great one.
- nextos 4y agoNewer editions of the book usually include the paper too.
- phonon 4y agohttp://www.cs.unc.edu/techreports/86-020.pdf http://www.cs.unc.edu/techreports/86-020.pdf
- Jtsummers 4y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32423356 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32423356 - It's been posted a few times here, too. A recent discussion with dcminter and dang listing out more prior submissions.
- avg_dev 4y agoI know a lot of people like MMM - I too enjoyed it. “The bearing of a child takes nine months, no matter how many women are assigned.” Still totally valid, IMO. But I really enjoyed The Design of Design as well. R.I.P. Mr. Brooks. I thank you for introducing to me the idea of conceptual integrity.
- kweinber 4y agoSad loss. One might wonder how much faster technology’s state of the art would have progressed if we had more people like Fred Brooks working in the field.
- riwsky 4y agoHow dare you suggest adding more engineers to a slowing project, now of all times?
- Lio 4y agoHaha, that's a great come back! Thanks for cheering me up. :D I mentioned Fred Brook in a comment just earlier in the week. The Mythical Man Month is such an obviously and well known trap it's still surprising so many projects still fall into it. Whilst his work is mostly seen as for software engineers, really it should be more well known by project and senior managers in general.
- kwhitefoot 4y agoPerfect, thank you!
- theteapot 4y agoI wonder what Brooks would think about it.
- pasttense01 4y ago"The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering is a book on software engineering and project management by Fred Brooks first published in 1975, with subsequent editions in 1982 and 1995. Its central theme is that adding manpower to software project that is behind schedule delays it even longer. This idea is known as Brooks's law, and is presented along with the second-system effect and advocacy of prototyping. Brooks's observations are based on his experiences at IBM while managing the development of OS/360. He had added more programmers to a project falling behind schedule, a decision that he would later conclude had, counter-intuitively, delayed the project even further." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month
- steve76 4y ago
- JohnDeHope 4y agoThat’s somebody’s funeral I would like to attend, to pay my respects.
- pixelmonkey 4y agoDeserves the black bar, in my view. Probably one of the most widely-discussed and most oft-cited writers among hackers of multiple generations. He will always be remembered for “Brooks’s Law”, colloquially, “adding people to a late software project makes it later”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks%27s_law And for his timeless essay, “No Silver Bullet”, which introduced the idea of accidental vs essential complexity in software: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Silver_Bullet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Silver_Bullet RIP.
- RantyDave 4y agoMMM is one of the very few things we all agree is right.
- randomsearch 4y agoThere are not many universally agreed truths amongst us opinionated hackers, but indeed Brooks has bequeathed us one.
- jwmcq 4y agoThis is the best way I've seen it put.
- dunk010 4y agoIf anything deserved the black bar it was this. Shameful that it didn’t happen.
- pixelmonkey 4y agoIt did happen, actually. It was put up shortly after this comment and taken down about a day after the news.
- AlbertCory 4y agoSad. He was a giant. I'm glad I got to at least shake his hand. One of the lawyers at Google had studied under him, and when I saw them crossing the street I just assumed the older gentleman with the visitor's badge was Brooks (I didn't even know what he looked like, but I found out later I'd guessed correctly).
- monksy 4y agoI'm pretty sad about this. When I was in high school and learning how to program, he let me borrow a copy of his Mythical Man Month book.
- AnimalMuppet 4y agoWait, what? You knew Fred Brooks when you were in high school? How?
- monksy 4y agoChurch connections. I didn't know him personally, parents did.
- AnimalMuppet 4y agoStill cool.
- monero-xmr 4y agoDon't be sad - he lived a long productive life full of people he impacted, and as you can see from the comments here he was well respected. All of us will die one day, let's not feel sadness.
- cortesoft 4y agoNothing you said means you can't feel sad. No matter how long and full someone's life is, there is still sadness when they are gone. It doesn't have to be debilitating sadness, but it is ok to feel sad.
- sirsinsalot 4y agoLet's not try and tell others what is OK and not OK to feel.
- nl 4y agoSo many question! Was he at the school somehow? Was Mythical Man Month useful for a high school programmer?
- dang 4y agoWe should probably wait for confirmation from more than this source. I don't disbelieve it, because they cite the UNC CS department, but even Wikipedia hasn't been updated yet.
- tedd4u 4y agoWikipedia is now updated.
- dang 4y agoOk, we'll restore the thread. The fact that OP is by a Columbia CS prof makes it pretty likely.
- mindcrime 4y agoBlack bar?
- DaiPlusPlus 4y ago
- KrisJordan 4y agoAs faculty at UNC CS, I can mournfully confirm this is indeed the case. He passed peacefully at his home in Chapel Hill earlier this evening, surrounded by family.
- puffoflogic 4y agoDang can you clarify why you found "Columbia CS" credentials more credible than "UNC CS"? I'd like to say that's a pretty shocking position but sadly it isn't.
- dang 4y agoI didn't find that, nor say it, nor imply it, nor did such a possibility ever enter my consciousness until now. I'm mystified that such an interpretation could even arise! Do you want to explain how it occurred to you?
- kwertyoowiyop 4y agoSuch a classic book. Are any other computer books from that date still relevant at all, let alone relevant to such a wide audience?
- elanning 4y agoRest in peace to one of the greats. You might want to consider reading The Design of Design if you liked The Mythical Man-Month.
- hcrisp 4y agoAnother quote of his; "Show me your flowchart and conceal your tables, and I shall continue to be mystified. Show me your tables, and I won't usually need your flowchart; it'll be obvious." -- Fred Brooks, The Mythical Man Month (1975) Stated a different way: "Bad programmers worry about the code. Good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships." -Linus Torvalds
- wodenokoto 4y agoIn reality though the tables are going to be like: Column named “price_usd_incl_tax” is neither in usd nor does it include all taxes.
- javawizard 4y agoWhich is exactly what Linus' quote is about.
- dt3ft 4y agoThis hits home. Not only in databases, but also in code.
- quickthrower2 4y agoIt used to mean that, but a programmer changed the meaning. They could. (a) rename the column, be the guy who broke the system and spend all weekend trying to fix 6 systems he never knew existed, written in Access, Excel, Crystal Reports, VB6, Delphi and a CMD file on a contractors laptop. (b) keep the column name, deliver the feature, go home.
- pif 4y agoThere's no point in keeping the same name so that a system can keep running, if the data meaning has changed. Bad programmers chose (b). Good programmers choose (a). Better programmers refuse the change request.
- deleted 4y ago
- rychco 4y agoI have fond memories of attending his "No Silver Bullet" lecture only a few short years ago. A favorite quote of mine from MMM: "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. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to polish and rework, so readily capable of realizing grand conceptual structures...."
- thundergolfer 4y ago“Castles in the air” was an inspiring quote to read as an undergrad, and helped me recognize programming as my vocation. I have a beautiful Docubyte print of the IBM-360 in my room, as a reminder of the great endowment that is our computing past. Well done to Brooks on a remarkable life’s work.
- lolinder 4y agoThe quote is worth reading in full, available here [0]. Brooks captured so perfectly my own experience programming. Sometimes the job is boring and hard, but then there are the moments that are pure magic: > Yet the program construct, unlike the poet's words, is real in the sense that in moves and works, producing visible outputs seperate from the construct itself. It prints results, draws pictures, produces sounds, moves arms. The magic of myth and legend has come true in our time. One types the correct incantation on the keyboard, and a display screen comes to life, showing things that never were nor could be. [0] https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~param/quotes/man-month.html https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~param/quotes/man-month.html
- Agingcoder 4y agoI came here to mention this quote. I bought the book years ago when I was on my 'let' s learn everything I can about computers and software ' spree. Very few books have left such a lasting impression on me, even though at the time I had no notion whatsoever of what professional software engineering was like.
- pjmorris 4y agoI read that section of MMM during a down time in my early career where I was doubting my choice of programming as a career because of my limitations. It buoyed my spirits enough that I decided to stick with it and I am glad I did. I owe a great personal debt to Brooks.
- state_less 4y agoFred brooks went supernova today. Let the brilliant light mark his passing and remind us of the light he shined on the software world.
- kristopolous 4y agoI was just looking him up the other day and found it was remarkable he was still alive. What a wonderful long life
- KrisJordan 4y ago"The teacher's job is to design learning experiences; not primarily to impart information." -Fred Brooks A favorite, lesser known quote of Fred's from his technical communications course at UNC and a SIGCSE talk. Beyond a software engineer and researcher, he was an extraordinary educator. His design ethos carried through to pedagogy, as well, and has been an inspiration to me. Thanks, Fred.
- Jare 4y agoDuring my short stint in academia, I once addressed our room full of students with something like "Our role here is not to teach you; it's to provide you with the best context in which you can learn." I have often wondered where that philosophy came from, and I an very happy to have an idea now.
- khazhoux 4y agoThe 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. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to polish and rework, so readily capable of realizing grand conceptual structures.
- acdha 4y agoSad news but he left a legacy to be proud of. Few people write anything which will be read half a century later, much less as a source of insight rather than historical context.
- muh_gradle 4y agoMay he rest in peace. Like many here, I was first introduced to Dr. Fred Brooks through Mythical Man-Month, which has had a tremendous impact in shaping my views on software. Afterwards I saw some of his lectures that he held at UNC on Youtube, and always wished I had attended UNC for my undergraduate studies.
- ghoward 4y agoIt is once again time for me to re-read The Mythical Man Month and watch his No Silver Bullet lecture. No better way to respect such a giant.
- quantified 4y agoOnce every 2-3 years as a refresher anyway. Yup.
- beckingz 4y agoA Man who will be Mythical every Month.
- djbusby 4y agoWe need a black stripe on here @dang
- herodoturtle 4y agoRIP Mr Brooks. I've still got my copy of MMM from 20 years ago. I re-read it recently (~2 years ago). Such great wisdom in that book. Would highly recommend it.
- avgcorrection 4y agoI wasn’t impressed by Man Month. The two major insights IIRC: 1. Adding more people adds overhead which slows down productivity. Might even make it worse 2. 10X developer (100X) mythology and how other programmers should be their support secretaries (1) is too obvious and (2) I didn’t like for self-interest reasons.
- Jtsummers 4y ago> (1) is too obvious If only. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2013/06/19/lockheed-reassigns-workers-to-fix-f35-software.html https://www.military.com/daily-news/2013/06/19/lockheed-reas... > Lockheed Martin Corp. has reassigned 200 engineers to work on the F-35 fighter jet's software, a problem area that Defense Department officials fear could cause more delays to the program. Somehow obvious to DOD, but not to LM. And that's just one of the more high profile incidents I know of, I've witnessed plenty of others (directly or indirectly) that never made news. Nearly 40 years after MMM was published and people in major corps still have to relearn the lessons.
- Dalewyn 4y agoConsider that from Lockheed Martin's perspective: The F-35 at that point is a program that is guaranteed to have money flowing no matter what, it is too grandiose to fail. The longer Lockheed Martin can protract the work and the more excuses they can muster to rack up the monies needed (read: monies they pocket), the better. The government cashcow will give milk. Lockheed Martin knew precisely that obvious fact of overhead.
- perryizgr8 4y ago“What one programmer can do in one month, two programmers can do in two months.” ― Fred Brooks I printed this out and taped it to the whiteboard at my desk. Handy to point out to the manager in various situations.
- breck 4y agoI exchanged a few emails with Fred over the years. RIP Fred. Thank you so much for all the wisdom. Sharing one of the last responses here: Thanks for your kind words. You will find lots of condensed wisdom in the three software books I value most: DeMarco & Lister Peopleware 2007. Software engineering: Barry Boehm's lifetime contributions to software development, management and research. Ed. by Richard Selby. Hoffman, Daniel M.; Weiss David M. (Eds.): Software Fundamentals – Collected Papers by David L. Parnas, 2001, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-70369-6. You might also like my later book on technical design in general: The Design of Design. Start with Part II.
- ArcMex 4y agoThanks for sharing this.
- olau 4y agoI can recommend The Design of Design. It's a bit chatty, but I haven't seen the material in there elsewhere, and it did change my perspective quite a bit, to the point where I could see some "conventional wisdom" at the time being entirely wrong.
- simulo 4y ago> but I haven't seen the material in there elsewhere Indeed. The references are full of works to studies from the Design Studies journal, in-situ work studies, works of philosophy etc.
- jlukic 4y agoThe Design of Design was one of the primary inspirations for my open source project Semantic UI. "[Progressive truthfulness] is perhaps a better way to build models of physical objects...Start with a model that is fully detailed but only resembles what is wanted. Then, one adjusts one attribute after another, bringing the result ever closer to the mental vision of the new creation, or to the real properties of a real-world object ...Starting with exemplars that themselves have consistency of style ensures that such consistency is the designer's to lose." Frederick Brooks - The Design of Design
- magicink81 4y ago"Conceptual integrity is the most important attribute of a great design" from The Design of Design
- AdamH12113 4y agoConceptual integrity is a seriously underrated concept. I think the inherent conflict between conceptual integrity and representativeness is at the heart of democracy, for instance.
- runevault 4y agoPeople keep mentioning this book. I think I'm going to have to check it out. Should also reread MMM as I haven't in years.
- pieterr 4y agoDr. Brooks on No silver Bullet (while eating pizza). https://youtu.be/HWYrrw7Zf1k https://youtu.be/HWYrrw7Zf1k RIP Dr. Brooks.
- neilwilson 4y agoAnother legend leaves us. Hopefully this will encourage more to read his work. It's about human behaviour and timeless.
- wbillingsley 4y agoHugely sorry to hear this. I met him when he was visiting Cambridge while I was a PhD student and he's a wonderful person as well as a computing luminary.
- j5r5myk 4y agoSad to hear. I did CS at UNC and will always cherish those late nights coding in the Brooks building. I have my dad’s first edition of MMM as well. RIP.
- drallison 4y agoJust a quick reminder: Fred Brooks did much more than write the Mythical Man Month.
- pjmorris 4y agoMMM deserves all the attention it gets, but there's more! 1. I've got to track down the source of the quote (it may be the linked video), but Brooks has said that the most important architectural decision he made was to have an eight bit byte rather than the cheaper 7 bits (Edit: 6 bits) being considered for the IBM 360. To call that influential is an understatement. 2. And he has said the most important management decision was sending Ted Codd to graduate school, where Codd laid the foundation for what became relational databases. 3. A paper [0] he co-authored with Amdahl and Blaauw introduced the term 'architecture' to computer hardware, later borrowed for software. From the first page: "The term architecture is used here to describe the attributes of a system as seen by the programmer, i.e., the conceptual structure and functional behavior, as distinct from the organization of the data flow and controls, the logical design, and the physical implementation." He gave an interesting talk at the 50th anniversary of the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) a few years ago, [1] [0] 'Architecture of the IBM System/360', Amdahl, Blaauw, Brooks. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StN49re9Nq8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StN49re9Nq8
- dalke 4y ago> eight bit byte rather than the cheaper 7 bits being considered for the IBM 360 That's 8-bit vs. 6-bit bytes. See "Interview: An interview with Fred Brooks", Communications of the ACM, Volume 58, Number 11 (2015), Pages 36-40 https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/2822519 https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/2822519 . > Gene's machine was based on the existing 6-bit byte and multiples of that: 24-bit instructions and a 48-bit instruction or floating point ... Of all my technical accomplishments, making the 8-bit byte decision is far and away the most important. The reason was that it opened up the lowercase alphabet. I saw language processing as being another new market area that we were not in, and could not get into very well as long we were doing 6-bit character sets. From your [0], "Architecture of the IBM System/360" (1964) at https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/sites.gatech.edu/dist/8/175/files/2015/08/IBM-360.pdf https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/sites.gatech.edu/dist/8/175/fi... see the section "Character size, 6 vs 4/8", which discusses 4/6, 6, and 8-bit codes and the reasoning for 8-bit, and which comments: > The selection of the 8-bit character size in 1961 proved wise by 1963, when the American Standards Association adopted a 7-bit standard character code for information interchange (ASCII). FWIW, [0] is from April 1964. He also used "computer architecture" in the earlier "Architectural Philosophy", which is chapter 2 of the 1962 book "Planning A Computer System" concerning Project Stretch, at https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_ibm7030Plam_46781927/page/n29/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_ibm7030Plam_46781927/p...
- betimsl 4y agoI qofte dheu i lehte.
- yieldcrv 4y ago(Feel like these trailblazers in computing are going to get more frequent, does anyone have an analysis on how much HN makes the banner to someone over the years)
- dalke 4y agoMy one email exchange with Brooks had nothing to do with Mythical Man Month. In the 1990s I was was the junior co-founder and, for a while, main developer of VMD, a program for molecular visualization. I wanted to include molecular surface visualization, but me being me, would rather integrate someone else's good work. I looked around and found "Surf", a molecular surface solver written by Amitabh Varshney when he was at the University of North Carolina. (See "Computing Smooth Molecular Surfaces", IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/310720 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/310720 .) Brooks, you may not know, heard Sutherland talk about using the screen as a window into another world, which got Brooks interested in VR. Back in the 1970s, at UNC, they started experimenting with head-mounted displays. Brooks worked on VR for the rest of his career. The UNC VR group worked on many different VR approaches, including haptic (tactile) feedback. As I recall, the first was a used hydraulic-powered robot arm. People had to wear a lab coat and helmet when using it because it would leak, and had a tendency to hit people. One of the experiments, the NanoManipulator, hooked up the VR and haptic feedback (not that same robot!) to an atomic-force microscope, so people could feel the surface and move nanoscale objects around. http://www.warrenrobinett.com/nano/ http://www.warrenrobinett.com/nano/ . Brooks felt that VR would be very useful for molecular visualization, and developed the GRIP Molecular Graphics Resource. Quoting https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA236598.pdf https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA236598.pdf , some of its early achievements were "the first molecular graphics system on which a protein was solved without a physical model", "using remote manipulator technology to enable users to feel molecular forces", and "Real-time, user-steered volume visualization of an electron density map". As that document points out, their goal was to "wildcat radical new molecular graphics ideas to the prototype stage. Winning ideas are spun off to the thriving commercial industry or into autonomous research projects." Surf fit very well in those lines, as VMD was an "autonomous research project". My exchange with Brooks and UNC was 1) to get permission to distribute Surf as part of the VMD distribution, and, 2) a few years later, to provide numbers about how many people had downloaded VMD with Surf.
- parag_chandra 4y agoYes, the NanoManipulator! I remember getting a demo of it during the grad student “research assistant job fair” when I first started there over 20 years ago. It was like magic, and what got me excited to study computer graphics. Unfortunately after taking the intro class (taught by Brooks himself) I realized I wasn’t cut out for all the complex math involved, so I switched to medical imaging instead. Still, Dr. Brooks was a great lecturer who injected a lot of his own personal experiences into his classes, and I ended up taking his computer architecture class later on.
- fredrikholm 4y agoA true yet humble giant. Reading his works elucidated so many ideas and experiences that I could not myself articulate, and helped set the foundation for my own ideas further down the line. RIP Fred, thank you for all your warm kindness and endless contributions to our field at large.
- Abumubeen 4y agoRIP
- thyrsus 4y agoMessage from the Chair of the UNC Computer Science Department (personal phone number elided): Dear Friends, It is with great sadness that I must share the following update on the health of the Department Founder Dr. Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. I know how much Dr. Brooks has meant to the department, to computer graphics, to the world of computing, and to each of you. So I wanted to reach out and pass on the following message from his son, Roger Brooks. Dr. Samarjit Chakraborty Chair, UNC Department of Computer Science – Begin Forwarded Message – Subject: Frederick's condition and his Hope Dear ones: As you may have heard, on Saturday my father came home from the hospital into hospice care. He spends most of the time sleeping. When (slightly) awake, he is only slightly responsive, and not able to respond verbally to questions. He seems to be in no pain and no particular discomfort. He is eating and drinking small amounts, but far from enough. Frederick P. Brooks Jr. has fought the good fight, run the good race, been an outstanding husband and father and mentor and friend of many . . . and is now fading away. His hope and his coming joy, in death and in life, is in his Lord Jesus Christ, who I know will welcome him with “Well done . . .”. The hospice nurse tells us that my father may live several days to 10 days or so. You may share this information with all who would want to know. I know that I am missing email addresses for beloved friends which exist somewhere in my parents’ contact lists, and I apologize that I do not have time to dig for those. With family and aides around, we have ample help. If you would like to come and visit my mother, or bring your last respects and prayers to my father, please just call the house first. Close friends are welcome, but it is hard to predict in advance when things will be busy or peaceful. Kori Robbins, associate pastor at Orange Methodist Church, visited yesterday and prayed what I thought was exactly the appropriate, loving, and merciful prayer, which she tells me she adapted from Douglas McKelvey's A Liturgy for the Final Hours. We ask you to join in this prayer: O God our Father, O Christ our Brother, O Spirit our comforter, Fred is ready. Now meet him at this mortal threshold and deliver him to that eternal city; to your radiant splendor; to your table and the feast and the festival of friends; to the wonder and the welcome of his heart's true home. He but waits for your word. Bid him rise and follow, and he will follow you gladly into that deeper glory, O Spirit his True Shepherd, O Christ his True King, O God his True and Loving Father, receive him now, and forgive his sins, through the blood of his Savior Jesus Christ. Roger Brooks Sr.
- atdrummond 4y ago
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y agoThat is sad, but he had a great career. He, along with folks like Watts Humphries, and Donald Knuth, were some of the earliest published "Computer Programming As An Engineering Discipline" types.
- phtrivier 4y agoA great way to go to posterity is to state a law that so much depends on some basic human flaw, that it can not be bent until Darwin changes our brain. Brook law of late software project will be quoted for the rest of times, because software projects will be late for the rest of time. May Mr. Brooks rest in peace until then.
- codetrotter 4y agoI really enjoyed his book “The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7157080-the-design-of-design https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7157080-the-design-of-de... RIP Mr. Brooks
- Guthur 4y agoI was literally just reading "there is no silver bullet" this week. Quite the legacy, long may it last.
- mwcampbell 4y agoFor some reason I thought Brooks had already died some years ago, but then I remembered that what I had previously read was the comment thread on the announcement of his retirement in 2016: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11257437 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11257437
- dbremont 4y agoVery sad News: Thanks for your enormous contribution to humanity !!! RIP, DR. Brooks
- po84 4y agoI had the privilege of attending some of Dr. Brooks' lectures. His views on the role of a computer scientist have helped me find meaning and direction in my career. May he rest in peace. In a word, the computer scientist is a toolsmith--no more, but no less. It is an honorable calling. If we perceive our role aright, we then see more clearly the proper criterion for success: a toolmaker succeeds as, and only as, the users of his tool succeed with his aid. However shining the blade, however jeweled the hilt, however perfect the heft, a sword is tested only by cutting. That swordsmith is successful whose clients die of old age. https://www.cs.unc.edu/~brooks/Toolsmith-CACM.pdf https://www.cs.unc.edu/~brooks/Toolsmith-CACM.pdf
- EdwardCoffin 4y agoI rarely see this mentioned, but book he authored with Gerrit A. Blaauw, Computer Architecture, has a really cool way of characterizing the various machine architectures by describing their data representations, formats, and significant operations in APL.
- jbirer 4y agoSo that's why there's a black bar, phew. glad it's not a bug on my browser.
- jessmartin 4y agoThe ACM recorded this 2-hour long interview[0] with Fred that walks through his whole history. It's incredible to see Fred's ability to recall conversations and technical decisions from over 50 years ago! I admire his ability to move back and forth between industry and academia and move the entire field forward. One of my favorite quotes: "A scientist builds in order to learn. An engineer learns in order to build." [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul0dbgs8Mdk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul0dbgs8Mdk
- dhruvmittal 4y agoDuring my first week at UNC Chapel Hill, I had an incredibly opportunity through the honors program where a handful of new students (including myself, an aspring CS student) got to hang out with Fred Brooks for an evening. I don't think I really knew who he was at the time, but I did recognize his name as the one on the CS Building. When we talk about Fred Brooks now, we're usually talking about the things he's written (MMM, No Silver Bullet, etc.) or the impact he's had on computing (8 bit byte, founding the CS depts, etc.). He didn't talk about any of that with us freshmen. Other than a brief introduction, he didn't talk about any of that at all. Instead, he talked to us about what he saw as the future. The most exciting thing going forward, as he saw it in August of 2011, was the development of the interface between biology and computing. One of the things that stuck with me was that he said he hoped students today looked at biology the way he looked at computer science back in the 50s and 60s, as a land of unlimited potential.
- tkhattra 4y ago> he said he hoped students today looked at biology the way he looked at computer science back in the 50s and 60s that's interesting, i believe ken thompson said something similar re: getting into biology in an interview about 20 years ago.
- phtrivier 4y agoWho is currently writing things that might end up having the impact of the MMM ? It's Friday, and I'm grumpy, so I could very well argue that the age of the "thinkers" is dead and gone for software, and that everything that comes from now is just rehashing old good ideas (at best) or propagating new bad ones. Let's be charitable and assume there is still 1% a good stuff among the junk. Who's writing it ? Who's on the good side of the tar pit, and has the potential to lend a hand ?
- bluGill 4y agoPlato is still read, but there have been may philosophers since then that are also read. We are quickly passing the golden age when anyone can see the obvious problems and write on them. There will be many thinkers to come, but they are all building on the giants of the past and so will mostly not be commenting on the obvious.
- phtrivier 4y agoWell, it probably also applies to Plato, but what Fred Brooks wrote is still not considered _obvious_. Exhibit A : every single project manager who tried to address a tight schedule on a late project with a "well, we'll get more people in.". Today.
- pfarrell 4y agoNot writing, but I have found all of Brett Victor's speeches to be incredibly inspiring on how I think about what I want to work on and where we're going. Inventing on Principle by Brett Victor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUv66718DII https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUv66718DII Growing a Language by Guy Steele: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw6TaiXzHAE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw6TaiXzHAE We Really Don't Know How to Compute! by Gerald Sussman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB5TrK7A4pI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB5TrK7A4pI
- qclibre22 4y agoWe are standing on the shoulders of giants. He was one of the tallest.
- bluGill 4y agoThey will get his funeral done in record time by assigning 9 preachers to speak at the same time. RIP Fred, you were a giant and will be missed.
- avg_dev 4y agoI laughed.
- KrisJordan 4y agoThe Department of Computer Science at UNC Chapel Hill, which Fred founded in 1964, shares our official remembrance letter here: https://cs.unc.edu/news-article/remembering-department-founder-dr-frederick-p-brooks-jr/ https://cs.unc.edu/news-article/remembering-department-found...
- khazhoux 4y agoOne of the things that always amazed me was how present he always was. Any lecture he attended, regardless of the speaker or topic (which were very far-ranging) he always asked questions. Good, tough, insightful questions. His mind was never passive, and he set a great example for everyone decades younger than him.
- avg_dev 4y agoThat is impressive. A goal I will try to aspire to. I may not achieve it and I may not always ask questions - but remaining alert, active, aware, that is pretty badass, and I would like to be that way too.