1. Brooksisms And Other Nuggets of Programming Wisdom
Chris Clark
May 12, 2016

2. Who am I? Some random programmer.
Worked with some other random programmers.
Managed programmers for a while.
Opinionated.

3. You are a Programmer. Beware Imposter Syndrome.
Who are you?
You are a Programmer.
Beware Imposter Syndrome.

4. Another programmer. Also managed programmers. Also wrote some books.
Who is Brooks?
Another programmer.
Also managed programmers.
Also wrote some books.

5. Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.
Brooks' Law
Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.

6. Hofstadter's Law
It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

7. Knowing the Problem
X / Y Z

8. 0th Question of Programming
What is the problem we're trying to solve?

9. nth Question of Programming
What is the problem we're trying to solve?

10. ∞th Question of Programming
What is the PROBLEM we're trying to solve?

11. Simplicity

12. Simple is better than Complex.
Complex is better than Complicated.
The Zen of Python

13. You can't communicate complexity, only an awareness of it.
Alan Perlis's Epigrams in Programming #105 SIGPLAN (September, 1982)

14. If it is hard to explain, it is not a good idea.
If it is easy to explain, it might be a good idea.
The Zen of Python

15. Clear > Clever

16. Technical Debt
Rigidity
Time

17. Plan to throw one away; you will, anyhow.*
Fred Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month

18. Every program has (at least) two purposes:
the one for which it was written,
and another for which it wasn't.
Alan Perlis's Epigrams in Programming #6 SIGPLAN (September, 1982)

19. First make it functional, Then make it beautiful, Then make it fast.
Unknown

20. Knuth's Optimization Principle
Premature optimization is the root of all evil.

21. There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things.
Phil Karlton

22. Always code as if the person who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.
Unknown

23. Read more code than you write.
Ask questions. Challenge assumptions.
Seek honest feedback.

24. The stuff you don't know you don't know
The stuff you know you don't know
The stuff you know
The stuff you don't know you don't know

25. Now go be programmers.