# Accounting for Computer Scientists by Martin Kleppmann

6 Hacker News commenters recommended Accounting for Computer Scientists by Martin Kleppmann and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a clear explanation of double-entry accounting for programmers, though critics find it skips the accounting logic and does not suit GAAP or IFRS learners.

## Why people recommend it

- Useful for learning accounting systems (2 comments): "This website that you call nonsensical was a huge help to me when starting to learn about accounting systems." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46473835)) "it has been very important to me in a career working on a special purpose accounting" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46473953))
- Clear, accessible double-entry explanation (2 comments): "explains double entry accounting in a surprisingly accessible way" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46464498)) "one of the simplest and sane explanations I've seen" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46472281))

## What people warn about

- Confusing and nonsensical to some readers (2 comments): "This website is absolutely nonsensical and I would not recommend it to anyone to understand how GAAP or IFRS accounting works." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46473381)) "I'm completely lost and booted out of yet another accounting lesson without passing the introduction" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46470735))
- Convoluted methods, skipped accounting logic (2 comments): "provides the most convoluted way of calculating basic things like profit and loss" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46485010)) "it presents transaction flows without properly explaining the accounting logic" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46480541))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Grug Brained Developer by Carson Gross](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grug-brained-developer.md): 13 recommend
- [Choose Boring Technology by Dan McKinley](https://hackerapproved.com/p/choose-boring-technology.md): 11 recommend
- [The Bitter Lesson by Rich Sutton](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bitter-lesson.md): 10 recommend
- [Things You Should Never Do by Joel Spolsky](https://hackerapproved.com/p/things-you-should-never-do.md): 10 recommend
- [The Illustrated Transformer by Jay Alammar](https://hackerapproved.com/p/illustrated-transformer.md): 9 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Accounting for Computer Scientists by Martin Kleppmann", https://hackerapproved.com/p/accounting-for-computer-scientists/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).