# The Grug Brained Developer by Carson Gross

13 Hacker News commenters recommended The Grug Brained Developer by Carson Gross and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend this short, humorous essay on software complexity and simplicity, saying it sums up design and refactoring advice well.

## Why people recommend it

- Humorous take on complexity (2 comments): "I think this section on complexity sums it up really well whether you're talking about code or laws" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46003088)) "humorous posts saying essentially the same thing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46312013))
- Useful for microservices and refactoring (2 comments): "The best descripcion of microservices comes from "The Grug Brained Developer"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46846197)) "I think grug has the best refactoring advice" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46185399))
- Enjoyable, memorable writing (2 comments): "That was still one of the best finds on HN in a long time." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46713631)) "The Grug Brain article is fantastic" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49215875))
- Often paired with other classic essays (2 comments): "I wish everyone in our industry read 'No Silver Bullet, & Grug-brained Developer'." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49468753)) "this article pairs nicely with" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49410707))

## Alternatives hackers 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
- [A Social Filesystem by Dan Abramov](https://hackerapproved.com/p/a-social-filesystem.md): 8 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "The Grug Brained Developer by Carson Gross", https://hackerapproved.com/p/grug-brained-developer/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).