Release It!
Release It! by Michael Nygardby Michael Nygard
Shares rank 15 of 21 software engineering books by recommenders
Recommended because its lessons have saved readers in production emergencies, according to people who have used them during outages.
Recommended because its lessons have saved readers in production emergencies, according to people who have used them during outages.
3 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 3
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not 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
- 3 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
Lessons have saved recommenders many times
“its lessons saved my bacon many times”
Comment from 21 Aug 2026 in “The August 17 outage, and the work ahead”
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 Fred Brooks | 56 | 3 | 95% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Designing Data-Intensive Applicationsby Martin Kleppmann | 37 | 1 | 97% | 12 | — | Approved |
| A Philosophy of Software Designby John Ousterhout | 28 | 1 | 97% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Code Completeby Steve McConnell | 14 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Release It!by Michael NygardThis page | 3 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
1 of the 3 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“its lessons saved my bacon many times”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.