Practical Object-Oriented Design
Practical Object-Oriented Design by Sandi Metzby Sandi Metz
Shares rank 38 of 115 programming books by recommenders
Recommended for teaching practical object-oriented design and for shifting thinking away from clever, artisanal and elegant code toward practicality; no critic in the quotes disputes it.
Recommended for teaching practical object-oriented design and for shifting thinking away from clever, artisanal and elegant code toward practicality; no critic in the quotes disputes it.
5 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 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
Called one of the best programming books
“Poodr is one of the best programming books ever written.”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Duplication Isn't Always an Anti-Pattern” “Sandi's books and conference talks are excellent.”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Duplication Isn't Always an Anti-Pattern” Teaches practical OOP principles
“I learned all of those principles by reading Sandi Metz's POODR”
Comment from 30 Mar 2026 in “What Construction at a Train Station Taught Me About Software Engineering” “it reshaped how I approached OOP”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Code duplication is far cheaper than the wrong abstraction” Shifted design toward practicality
“that helped start a movement away from "clever", "artisanal", and "elegant" and towards more practicality”
Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “Maybe Comments _Should_ Explain 'What'” “it reshaped how I approached OOP”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Code duplication is far cheaper than the wrong abstraction”
Other programming books people recommend
The four most recommended other programming books, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crafting Interpretersby Robert Nystrom | 60 | 4 | 94% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Clean Codeby Robert C. Martin | 31 | 87 | 26% | 9 | — | — |
| The Pragmatic Programmerby Hunt and Thomas | 28 | 1 | 97% | 7 | — | Approved |
| How to Design Programsby Felleisen, Findler, Flatt and Krishnamurthi | 18 | 2 | 90% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Practical Object-Oriented Designby Sandi MetzThis page | 5 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 5 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it reshaped how I approached OOP”
“I learned all of those principles by reading Sandi Metz's POODR”
“that helped start a movement away from "clever", "artisanal", and "elegant" and towards more practicality”
“Poodr is one of the best programming books ever written.”
“Sandi's books and conference talks are excellent.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.