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I'm pretty sad about this.

When I was in high school and learning how to program, he let me borrow a copy of his Mythical Man Month book.




Wait, what? You knew Fred Brooks when you were in high school? How?


Church connections. I didn't know him personally, parents did.


Still cool.


So many question!

Was he at the school somehow?

Was Mythical Man Month useful for a high school programmer?


Not so much, at that time I was making projects putting them out on the internet etc. I tried talking with other adults that were programmers about some of the issues I had and occasionally got advice.

But when I got to grad school.. their convervsations about "the industry" and ways of working was massively inexperienced. I also read a lot at that age. It also did give me a leg up in identifying high pressure of delieverying. (The 9 women in 1 month for a baby reference).


Don't be sad - he lived a long productive life full of people he impacted, and as you can see from the comments here he was well respected. All of us will die one day, let's not feel sadness.


Nothing you said means you can't feel sad. No matter how long and full someone's life is, there is still sadness when they are gone. It doesn't have to be debilitating sadness, but it is ok to feel sad.


Let's not try and tell others what is OK and not OK to feel.




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