Pp. 102–3.
“
Show me your flowcharts and conceal your tables, and I shall continue to be mystified. Show me your tables, and I won’t usually need your flowcharts; they’ll be obvious.
— Fred Brooks
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Show me your flowcharts and conceal your tables, and I shall continue to be mystified. Show me your tables, and I won’t usually need your flowcharts; they’ll be obvious." in the context of "Pp. 102–3." to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "Fred Brooks" (Quotes, The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering (1975, 1995): Originally published in 1975; page numbers refer to the substantially expanded Anniversary Edition (2nd Edition), 1995, Addison-Wesley, )
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
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About Fred Brooks
Frederick Phillips Brooks, Jr. (April 19, 1931 – November 17, 2022) was a computer architect, software engineer, and computer scientist, most famous for managing the development of IBM's System/360 Computer family hardware and then OS/360, then later writing candidly about the process in his seminal book The Mythical Man-Month. Brooks received a Turing Award in 1999 and many other awards.
About Fred Brooks
Frederick Phillips Brooks, Jr. (April 19, 1931 – November 17, 2022) was a computer architect, software engineer, and computer scientist, most famous for managing the development of IBM's System/360 Computer family hardware and then OS/360, then later writing candidly about the process in his seminal book The Mythical Man-Month. Brooks received a Turing Award in 1999 and many other awards.
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