# The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/mythical-man-month/ 48 people recommended The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks in Hacker News comments, 7 had mixed feelings and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 12 months, in 35 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** A classic essay collection on software project management, valued for lessons on team size, communication and conceptual integrity that people say still hold. Some readers find parts dated or aimed at management rather than coding. Summary written by Claude from 44 comments. ## Why people recommend it - Lessons still hold for software teams (7 comments in the sample): "The most famous lesson from that book is that you can’t just add bodies to a team and expect proportionate increases in productivity." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46177890)) "Loved Brooks’ and feel like I must’ve internalized his model because that’s all I care about anymore in dev." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48074765)) "The lessons in that book have broadly held true for nearly every single one of my employers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48071450)) - Widely recommended must-read for managers (5 comments in the sample): "The Mythical Man Month" should have been required reading for your managers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46133557)) "should really be a mandatory reading for anyone working in software" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48022286)) "If business people don't understand it, tell them to read Brooks." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49807922)) - Quotable insights on team composition (3 comments in the sample): "the importance of conceptual integrity and how hard this is to achieve the bigger the team" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46267496)) "it's worth reading Mythical Man Month WRT team composition" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46608450)) "I love this book, and I often recommend it to new folks on my team." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48071913)) - Influential for generations of programmers (3 comments in the sample): "That book was given to me in 1993 as I was just starting out in college." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48024961)) "there is no better book on the topic than The Mythical Man Month" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47750367)) "one of the most popular well distributed books that discusses this explicitly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46700033)) ## What people warn about - Parts feel dated (2 comments in the sample): "Times have really, really changed - do not pay attention to the messages of this book unless for historical fun." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48071421)) "As usual, Brooks has 50 year old insights about this 'novel problem" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49799896)) - Focused on management more than coding (2 comments in the sample): "I didn’t get anything out of Mythical Man Month, which I didn’t expect to anyway since it’s a management book." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47494563)) "It does not apply for idea generation and also not to problem solving/ fixing things, only to software creation." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50256343)) ## Other software engineering books people recommend - [Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann](https://hackerapproved.com/p/designing-data-intensive-applications/): 33 recommend, 3 mixed, 1 criticize - [A Philosophy of Software Design by John Ousterhout](https://hackerapproved.com/p/a-philosophy-of-software-design/): 26 recommend, 1 mixed, 1 criticize - [The Architecture of Open Source Applications by Amy Brown and Greg Wilson](https://hackerapproved.com/p/architecture-of-open-source-applications/): 13 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize - [Code Complete by Steve McConnell](https://hackerapproved.com/p/code-complete/): 12 recommend, 2 mixed, 0 criticize ## Where to get it - [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0201835959) - [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/book/9780201835953) ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks", https://hackerapproved.com/p/mythical-man-month/ (48 recommend, 7 mixed, 3 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.