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Fred Brooks

Abstractions Frederick Phillips Brooks, Jr.

• Wikipedia:Fred_Brooks
  

Author of The Mythical Man-Month, a classic book on SoftwareProjectManagement? [1], [2].

HighLevelLanguage Author of No Silver Bullet, [3].
Silver Bullet:

... [a] single development, in either technology or management technique, which by itself promises even one order of magnitude improvement in productivity, in reliability, in simplicity [of software projects]

The complexity of software is an essential property, not an accidental one. Hence, descriptions of a software entity that abstract away its complexity often abstract away its essence.

• Essential complexity cannot be removed. It is caused by the problem itself.
• Accidential complexity is the fault of someone. E.g. the programmer of an algorithm to solve a problem.
  

The essential complexity is the lowest limit one can reduce a problem to. Below that threshold complexity can only be shuffled about. That's good, though, too. Shuffle complexity to someone who can deal with it.