The Psychology of Computer Programming
The Psychology of Computer Programming by Gerald Weinbergby Gerald M. Weinberg
Shares rank 12 of 21 software engineering books by recommenders
A classic 1970s book on the human side of software development, recommended as a historical read that still puts people at the center of programming work.
A classic 1970s book on the human side of software development, recommended as a historical read that still puts people at the center of programming work.
5 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: 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
Puts people at the center
“aimed to put humans at the center of software development”
Comment from 21 Jul 2026 in “The Psychology of Software Teams” Classic, still worth reading
“Reading The Psychology of Computer Programming from the 70s was such an interesting read for me from a historical perspective”
Comment from 30 Aug 2026 in “Casey Muratori – The Root of the Root of All Evil – BSC 2026 [video]” “One of the best pieces of work in this genre”
Comment from 21 Jul 2026 in “The Psychology of Software Teams” Insight on code review and feedback
“one of the things that I liked in this book (and for the most part, missed in actual employment) was the confidence you get when you can run your code by other folks”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “Why are good developers so wary of agentic development?”
Other software engineering books people recommend
The four most recommended other software engineering 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Mythical Man-Monthby Frederick P. Brooks | 56 | 3 | 95% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Designing Data-Intensive Applicationsby Martin Kleppmann | 37 | 1 | 97% | 12 | — | Approved |
| A Philosophy of Software Designby John K. Ousterhout | 28 | 1 | 97% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Code Completeby Steve McConnell | 14 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
| The Psychology of Computer Programmingby Gerald M. WeinbergThis page | 5 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
4 of the 5 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“one of the things that I liked in this book (and for the most part, missed in actual employment) was the confidence you get when you can run your code by other folks”
“Reading The Psychology of Computer Programming from the 70s was such an interesting read for me from a historical perspective”
“aimed to put humans at the center of software development”
“One of the best pieces of work in this genre”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.