#fredbrooks — Public Fediverse posts

Representation is the essence of programming.
-- Fred Brooks (The Mythical Man-Month)

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #FredBrooks #Programming

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #ChacoCanyon #PuebloBonito #Ruins #NewMexico

Nine people can't make a baby in a month.
-- Fred Brooks (On adding programmers to a late-running project)

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #FredBrooks #Computers #Programming

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #ChacoCanyon #PuebloBonito #Ruins #NewMexico

I'm no rocket scientist. I don't know much about the business of making rockets.

Sean Duffy decided to open up the contract for getting the US back to the moon. His reasoning was that SpaceX was behind schedule.

To me, this move seems idiotic. Fred Brooks in The Mythical Man-Month pointed out a mistake that people who manage software engineering projects tend to commit: if a project is behind schedule, they add more engineers to the project, hoping to thereby reduce the development time. However, Brooks has argued that adding more engineers just creates more communication problems and delays the project further.

(Here's an illustration. Let's say it takes 10 hours for one painter to paint some rooms of a house. It is reasonable to think that two painters working at the same rate will get it done in 5 hours. Maybe you can extend this to 10 painters to do it in one hour. The coordination overhead is probably going to push this a bit longer than one hour. However, to think that 100 painters are going to be able to reduce the required time to 0.1 hours is pure nonsense. They'd be tripping over each other. The more workers you have, the more coordination overhead you have to deal with.)

It seems to me that Sean Duffy is completely ignoring the lesson that Fred Brooks gave us. Yes, SpaceX is behind... but how on Earth is giving the contract to someone else going to magically solve the problem? Duffy is not merely asking that more engineers be added to the project. He's going to completely change who works on the project. As far as I see it, this is worse than just adding engineers.

I can see the other contractors making promises now, and then, down the road, declare that they need more time. Is whoever is in charge of NASA going to want to change who gets the contract again????

(For the record, I wish that all of Musk's companies go bankrupt, including SpaceX. Still, this looks like a stupid move if what you want is to get to the moon as fast as possible.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month

#USNews #NASA #SeanDuffy #SpaceX #ElonMusk #FredBrooks #TheMythicalManMonth

I'm no rocket scientist. I don't know much about the business of making rockets.

Sean Duffy decided to open up the contract for getting the US back to the moon. His reasoning was that SpaceX was behind schedule.

To me, this move seems idiotic. Fred Brooks in The Mythical Man-Month pointed out a mistake that people who manage software engineering projects tend to commit: if a project is behind schedule, they add more engineers to the project, hoping to thereby reduce the development time. However, Brooks has argued that adding more engineers just creates more communication problems and delays the project further.

(Here's an illustration. Let's say it takes 10 hours for one painter to paint some rooms of a house. It is reasonable to think that two painters working at the same rate will get it done in 5 hours. Maybe you can extend this to 10 painters to do it in one hour. The coordination overhead is probably going to push this a bit longer than one hour. However, to think that 100 painters are going to be able to reduce the required time to 0.1 hours is pure nonsense. They'd be tripping over each other. The more workers you have, the more coordination overhead you have to deal with.)

It seems to me that Sean Duffy is completely ignoring the lesson that Fred Brooks gave us. Yes, SpaceX is behind... but how on Earth is giving the contract to someone else going to magically solve the problem? Duffy is not merely asking that more engineers be added to the project. He's going to completely change who works on the project. As far as I see it, this is worse than just adding engineers.

I can see the other contractors making promises now, and then, down the road, declare that they need more time. Is whoever is in charge of NASA going to want to change who gets the contract again????

(For the record, I wish that all of Musk's companies go bankrupt, including SpaceX. Still, this looks like a stupid move if what you want is to get to the moon as fast as possible.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month

#USNews #NASA #SeanDuffy #SpaceX #ElonMusk #FredBrooks #TheMythicalManMonth

I'm no rocket scientist. I don't know much about the business of making rockets.

Sean Duffy decided to open up the contract for getting the US back to the moon. His reasoning was that SpaceX was behind schedule.

To me, this move seems idiotic. Fred Brooks in The Mythical Man-Month pointed out a mistake that people who manage software engineering projects tend to commit: if a project is behind schedule, they add more engineers to the project, hoping to thereby reduce the development time. However, Brooks has argued that adding more engineers just creates more communication problems and delays the project further.

(Here's an illustration. Let's say it takes 10 hours for one painter to paint some rooms of a house. It is reasonable to think that two painters working at the same rate will get it done in 5 hours. Maybe you can extend this to 10 painters to do it in one hour. The coordination overhead is probably going to push this a bit longer than one hour. However, to think that 100 painters are going to be able to reduce the required time to 0.1 hours is pure nonsense. They'd be tripping over each other. The more workers you have, the more coordination overhead you have to deal with.)

It seems to me that Sean Duffy is completely ignoring the lesson that Fred Brooks gave us. Yes, SpaceX is behind... but how on Earth is giving the contract to someone else going to magically solve the problem? Duffy is not merely asking that more engineers be added to the project. He's going to completely change who works on the project. As far as I see it, this is worse than just adding engineers.

I can see the other contractors making promises now, and then, down the road, declare that they need more time. Is whoever is in charge of NASA going to want to change who gets the contract again????

(For the record, I wish that all of Musk's companies go bankrupt, including SpaceX. Still, this looks like a stupid move if what you want is to get to the moon as fast as possible.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month

#USNews #NASA #SeanDuffy #SpaceX #ElonMusk #FredBrooks #TheMythicalManMonth

I'm no rocket scientist. I don't know much about the business of making rockets.

Sean Duffy decided to open up the contract for getting the US back to the moon. His reasoning was that SpaceX was behind schedule.

To me, this move seems idiotic. Fred Brooks in The Mythical Man-Month pointed out a mistake that people who manage software engineering projects tend to commit: if a project is behind schedule, they add more engineers to the project, hoping to thereby reduce the development time. However, Brooks has argued that adding more engineers just creates more communication problems and delays the project further.

(Here's an illustration. Let's say it takes 10 hours for one painter to paint some rooms of a house. It is reasonable to think that two painters working at the same rate will get it done in 5 hours. Maybe you can extend this to 10 painters to do it in one hour. The coordination overhead is probably going to push this a bit longer than one hour. However, to think that 100 painters are going to be able to reduce the required time to 0.1 hours is pure nonsense. They'd be tripping over each other. The more workers you have, the more coordination overhead you have to deal with.)

It seems to me that Sean Duffy is completely ignoring the lesson that Fred Brooks gave us. Yes, SpaceX is behind... but how on Earth is giving the contract to someone else going to magically solve the problem? Duffy is not merely asking that more engineers be added to the project. He's going to completely change who works on the project. As far as I see it, this is worse than just adding engineers.

I can see the other contractors making promises now, and then, down the road, declare that they need more time. Is whoever is in charge of NASA going to want to change who gets the contract again????

(For the record, I wish that all of Musk's companies go bankrupt, including SpaceX. Still, this looks like a stupid move if what you want is to get to the moon as fast as possible.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month

#USNews #NASA #SeanDuffy #SpaceX #ElonMusk #FredBrooks #TheMythicalManMonth

Nine people can't make a baby in a month.
-- Fred Brooks (On adding programmers to a late-running project)

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #FredBrooks #Computers #Programming

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #BartolomeIsland #PinnacleRock #Galapagos

Nine people can't make a baby in a month.
-- Fred Brooks (On adding programmers to a late-running project)

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #FredBrooks #Computers #Programming

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #ChacoCanyon #Panopainting #NewMexico

#Quotes #Software #Manpower #FredBrooks

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later. -Fred Brooks, computer scientist (19 Apr 1931-2022)

Bumped into this NYT obituary for Fred Brooks. Somehow I had missed it in 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/23/technology/frederick-p-brooks-jr-dead.html

#FredBrooks #BrooksLaw #IBM360 #OS360 #MythicalManMonth

Bumped into this NYT obituary for Fred Brooks. Somehow I had missed it in 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/23/technology/frederick-p-brooks-jr-dead.html

#FredBrooks #BrooksLaw #IBM360 #OS360 #MythicalManMonth

Bumped into this NYT obituary for Fred Brooks. Somehow I had missed it in 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/23/technology/frederick-p-brooks-jr-dead.html

#FredBrooks #BrooksLaw #IBM360 #OS360 #MythicalManMonth

Bumped into this NYT obituary for Fred Brooks. Somehow I had missed it in 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/23/technology/frederick-p-brooks-jr-dead.html

#FredBrooks #BrooksLaw #IBM360 #OS360 #MythicalManMonth

@SteveBellovin

Adding #ComputerHistory #Computers #IBMS360 #Bits #Bytes #History #FredBrooks tags to this, so it can be picked up (hopefully) by Mastodon searches.

Topic: Historical note on how 8 bits make a byte.

@b0rk

@SteveBellovin

Adding #ComputerHistory #Computers #IBMS360 #Bits #Bytes #History #FredBrooks tags to this, so it can be picked up (hopefully) by Mastodon searches.

Topic: Historical note on how 8 bits make a byte.

@b0rk

@SteveBellovin

Adding #ComputerHistory #Computers #IBMS360 #Bits #Bytes #History #FredBrooks tags to this, so it can be picked up (hopefully) by Mastodon searches.

@b0rk

@SteveBellovin

Adding #ComputerHistory #Computers #IBMS360 #Bits #Bytes #History #FredBrooks tags to this, so it can be picked up (hopefully) by Mastodon searches.

Topic: Historical note on how 8 bits make a byte.

@b0rk

@SteveBellovin

Adding #ComputerHistory #Computers #IBMS360 #Bits #Bytes #History #FredBrooks tags to this, so it can be picked up (hopefully) by Mastodon searches.

@b0rk

My tribute to #FredBrooks. He was a contemporary of Jerry Weinberg at IBM and possibly the first person to use the term "architecture" for computers. Jerry said to me -

"Fred asked me if I thought the term 'architecture' was appropriate for what he was doing in designing the 360. Nowadays, with the term 'architecture' bandied about in meaningless ways, I regret that I told him it was okay."

Fred Brooks overleed vorige week. Een markante persoonlijkheid die ooit na een gefaald project bij IBM ontslag wou nemen. Zijn baas wou dat niet.

https://janvandenberg.blog/rip-fred-brooks/

#ibm #fredbrooks

With the death of Fred Brooks, a friendly reminder: the key takeaway people have from his book is usually misquoted.

You *can* add more engineers and get projects done faster if the tasks are *parallelizable* and there is clear agreement about the interactions (example: software contracts).

"When a task cannot be partitioned because of sequential constraints, the application of more effort has no effect on the schedule."

#fredBrooks #management #programming #projectManagement

Maskierte Interrupts und mythische Mann-Monate: Zum Tode von Fred Brooks

Im Alter von 91 Jahren ist der Informatiker und Computer-Pionier Fred Brooks gestorben. Zwei Sätze aus seinen Schriften wurden zu "Computer-Gesetzen" erklärt.

https://www.heise.de/news/Maskierte-Interrupts-und-mythische-Mann-Monate-Zum-Tode-von-Fred-Brooks-7346587.html?wt_mc=sm.red.ho.mastodon.mastodon.-.-

#Nachruf #FredBrooks #RIP

@jswilkins @ehud

Is worth reading for anyone interested in computation #histodon #sociology. I've encountered versions of the MMM concept in all of kinds of primary sources. RIP #FredBrooks

@pleia2
Oh, such sad news! 😢
#showmeyourcopy
#FredBrooks

@pleia2
Oh, such sad news! 😢
#showmeyourcopy
#FredBrooks

@pleia2
Oh, such sad news! 😢
#showmeyourcopy
#FredBrooks

@pleia2
Oh, such sad news! 😢
#showmeyourcopy
#FredBrooks

@pleia2
Oh, such sad news! 😢
#showmeyourcopy
#FredBrooks

Sad to hear of the passing of #FredBrooks. Truly a giant in the field. We’d all do well to remember Brooks’ law - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks%27s_law

"Fred Brooks, Jr.: Birth of the 360 Project" via the Computer History Museum: https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/mainframe-computers/7/162/2270

His dunks on JCL are hilarious #FredBrooks #JCL #column73 #mainframe

"Fred Brooks, Jr.: Birth of the 360 Project" via the Computer History Museum: https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/mainframe-computers/7/162/2270

His dunks on JCL are hilarious #FredBrooks #JCL #column73 #mainframe

"Fred Brooks, Jr.: Birth of the 360 Project" via the Computer History Museum: https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/mainframe-computers/7/162/2270

His dunks on JCL are hilarious #FredBrooks #JCL #column73 #mainframe

"Fred Brooks, Jr.: Birth of the 360 Project" via the Computer History Museum: https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/mainframe-computers/7/162/2270

His dunks on JCL are hilarious #FredBrooks #JCL #column73 #mainframe

"Fred Brooks, Jr.: Birth of the 360 Project" via the Computer History Museum: https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/mainframe-computers/7/162/2270

His dunks on JCL are hilarious #FredBrooks #JCL #column73 #mainframe

I notice that my first inclination was to go to Twitter and search for Fred Brooks and read all the eulogies. It’s a shame that this isn’t as easy to do here. Hopefully people will remember to use a hash tag. #FredBrooks.

RIP #FredBrooks a legend in computer science and software engineering. His Mythical Man-Month book should be required reading for people in the field and is also a historical milestone.

Mourning a legend.

How often do we bring up the Mythical Man Month? #showmeyourcopy #FredBrooks

Mourning a legend.

How often do we bring up the Mythical Man Month? #showmeyourcopy #FredBrooks

Mourning a legend.

How often do we bring up the Mythical Man Month? #showmeyourcopy #FredBrooks

Mourning a legend.

How often do we bring up the Mythical Man Month? #showmeyourcopy #FredBrooks

Mourning a legend.

How often do we bring up the Mythical Man Month? #showmeyourcopy #FredBrooks

I shall have to update my "compressed history of operating systems since the abacus to the modern server" talk to include the fact that we owe 8-bit bytes mostly due to the #NSA's requirement (listen to Brooks explaining it) 🧐😁
---
RT @BrianLinuxing
An excellent clip of #FredBrooks of #IBM on the System 360 and adoption of the 8 bit byte https://youtu.be/9oOCrAePJMs
https://twitter.com/BrianLinuxing/status/1593641826036097031

Fred Brooks in The Design of Design asks which design constraints are real and which are misperceived, intentional constructs, or obsolete.

RIP Fred Brooks
#FredBrooks

RIP Fred Brooks, whose works profoundly influenced me, like so many others. "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." #FredBrooks #SoftwareEngineering #RSE