# How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner

4 Hacker News commenters recommended How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for clear explanations of large project delivery, with an appendix of statistics for each project category.

## Why people recommend it

- Clearly explains large project concerns (2 comments): "The book "How Big Things Get Done" by Bent Flyvbjerg nicely answers all the concerns mentioned in this thread." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46913639)) "IMHO this is very well explained in "How Big Things Get Done"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49906073))
- Named as the go-to reference (3 comments): "The book "How Big Things Get Done" by Bent Flyvbjerg nicely answers all the concerns mentioned in this thread." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46913639)) "This is the right point to mention "How Big Things Get Done" by Bent Flyvbjerg." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46792713)) "IMHO this is very well explained in "How Big Things Get Done"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49906073))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Unaccountability Machine by Dan Davies](https://hackerapproved.com/p/unaccountability-machine.md): 11 recommend
- [Turn the Ship Around! by L. David Marquet](https://hackerapproved.com/p/turn-the-ship-around.md): 10 recommend
- [Shape Up by Ryan Singer](https://hackerapproved.com/p/shape-up.md): 6 recommend
- [Team Topologies by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais](https://hackerapproved.com/p/team-topologies.md): 5 recommend
- [Peopleware by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister](https://hackerapproved.com/p/peopleware.md): 5 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1035018969?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9781035018963) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner", https://hackerapproved.com/p/how-big-things-get-done/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).