# Frederick Brooks ![[50 Resources/51 Attachments/51.03 Public/2025-08-23_Frederick_Brooks.jpg|400]] **Frederick Phillips Brooks Jr.** (April 19, 1931 – November 17, 2022) was an American computer architect, software engineer, and computer scientist, best known for managing development of IBM's System/360 family of mainframe computers and the OS/360 software support package, then later writing candidly about those experiences in his seminal book [[The Mythical Man-Month (book)]]. ## Career and Contributions Brooks joined IBM in 1956, working on the architecture of the IBM 7030 Stretch and later becoming manager for developing the IBM System/360 family of computers and the OS/360 software package. During this time he coined the term "computer architecture". In 1964, Brooks founded the computer science department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he chaired it for 20 years and continued active research in virtual environments and scientific visualization. A few years after leaving IBM, he wrote *The Mythical Man-Month*, making the now-famous statement: "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later", which has since come to be known as Brooks's law. He is also known for the paper "No Silver Bullet – Essence and Accident in Software Engineering". ## Legacy Brooks received many prestigious awards including the National Medal of Technology in 1985 and the Turing Award in 1999. He was an evangelical Christian who was active with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Brooks died on November 17, 2022, at age 91. ## Quotes <!-- QueryToSerialize: LIST FROM #type/quote AND [[Frederick Brooks]] WHERE public_note = true SORT file.name ASC --> <!-- SerializedQuery: LIST FROM #type/quote AND [[Frederick Brooks]] WHERE public_note = true SORT file.name ASC --> - [[An omelette, promised in two minutes, may appear to be progressing nicely. But when it has not set in two minutes, the customer has two choices. Wait or eat it raw]] <!-- SerializedQuery END --> ## Books <!-- QueryToSerialize: LIST FROM #books AND [[Frederick Brooks]] WHERE public_note = true SORT file.name ASC --> <!-- SerializedQuery: LIST FROM #books AND [[Frederick Brooks]] WHERE public_note = true SORT file.name ASC --> - [[The Mythical Man-Month (book)]] <!-- SerializedQuery END -->