[Henchman21]

I asked who hadn’t read that in an engineering meeting recently. No one had heard of it. Now, I have been in tech for my entire life. That book was given to me in 1993 as I was just starting out in college.

NO ONE in my meeting was familiar with the title or author.

I felt a little more impending doom upon realizing that.

[jorisw]

Does everyone need to have read it though, in order to understand its premise?

Surely they were at least aware of the basic premise that adding people doesn’t necessarily speed up delivery?

[Henchman21]

In a meeting where "adding more people to speed up delivery" was exactly the topic and the reason I brought up the book, nah.

[dgellow]

> Does everyone need to have read it though, in order to understand its premise?

Yes, it isn't a long read. You can reduce the book into one sentence if you want but that's a very low resolution understanding of the discussion at hand. Why is adding people not speeding up? Assuming that's true, what can be done about it? Why people still believe that adding more people will actually be beneficial?

Also, it's just generally a good read. Engaging with nuance is essential IMHO, in a world where AI is incentivizing us to summarize everything

[zanderz]

An analogy I saw once: can 9 women make a baby in 1 month?

[dgellow]

Funny to see it on the front page today! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48046436