No Silver Bullet
No Silver Bullet by Fred Brooksby Fred Brooks
Shares rank 15 of 60 articles by recommenders
A 1986 essay arguing there is no single breakthrough that will make software far easier to build, still cited by readers as largely correct about modern tools and AI.
A 1986 essay arguing there is no single breakthrough that will make software far easier to build, still cited by readers as largely correct about modern tools and AI.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 89%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Argument still holds for today's tools
“Fred Brooks' No Silver Bullet was correct.”
Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “The Future of Everything Is Lies, I Guess: Where Do We Go from Here?” “Brooks is still mostly correct.”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “You're Probably Using AI Like an MBA” Worth reading in full
“I wish everyone in our industry read 'No Silver Bullet, & Grug-brained Developer'.”
Comment from 27 Aug 2026 in “Software engineering is about managing complexity” “It is worth to have a detailed look into the original essay and its arguments”
Comment from 9 May 2026 in “Mythical Man Month” “I would add "No Silver Bullet" to the reading list.”
Comment from 17 May 2026 in “I don't think AI will make your processes go faster”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Subroutine-as-abstraction assumption is dated
“fundamentally rested on the assumption that the subroutine was the last word in abstractions”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Lessons for Agentic Coding: What should we do when code is cheap?” Gains from AI are modest
“Maybe you'll get a 30% boost. Not a 10X boost.”
Comment from 4 May 2026 in “Let's Talk about LLMs”
Other articles people recommend
The four most recommended other articles, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Programming as Theory Buildingby Peter Naur | 32 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Ur-Fascismby Umberto Eco | 18 | 2 | 90% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Politics and the English Languageby George Orwell | 14 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | Approved |
| The Grug Brained Developer by Carson Gross | 13 | 1 | 93% | 9 | — | Approved |
| No Silver Bulletby Fred BrooksThis page | 8 | 1 | 89% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
9 of the 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I wish everyone in our industry read 'No Silver Bullet, & Grug-brained Developer'.”
“I would add "No Silver Bullet" to the reading list.”
“In fact 'No Silver Bullet' says nothing of the sort”
“It is worth to have a detailed look into the original essay and its arguments”
“fundamentally rested on the assumption that the subroutine was the last word in abstractions”
“There is an entire section about expert systems that foreshadows agents.”
“Maybe you'll get a 30% boost. Not a 10X boost.”
“Fred Brooks' No Silver Bullet was correct.”
“Brooks is still mostly correct.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.