A Philosophy of Software Design | John Ousterhout | Talks at Google

What people said

pcwelder · 2026-02 · Strong recommendation

Each repost is worth it. This, along with John Ousterhout's talk [1] on deep interfaces was transformational for me. And this is coming from a guy who codes in python, so lots of transferable learnings. [1] [VIDEO]

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devnonymous · 2024-07 · Strong recommendation

This google talk [VIDEO] is a condensed version of the (already small - 150 pags IIRC) book. I highly recommend both. To the point made by the GP (and others here) about how useful the book is, I must add that I got a whole lot more from this small book than some other well known and oft suggested titles (like Clean Code, POSA etc). My most recent peeve about the matter is that Kent Beck"s "Tidy, Fisrt?" was apparently motivated partly in response to this book and yet it falls way too short to matching up. Half of thst book is way too simplistic and almost patronizing and the other is handwavy abstract notions too scared to touch reality lest it spoil the narrative.

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loup-vaillant · 2023-01 · Strong recommendation

> I'd rather get to value now by making something that just works(and is adequately tested) than engineer something thats future proof but takes longer to get out. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend A Philosophy of Software Design by John Ousterhout. His talk is a great teaser for the book: [VIDEO] Here's the thing: a program properly written for the future does not take longer to get out. Not much, at least. What we instinctively think of as "future proof" is generally anything but: by anticipating some particular kind of change that may happen some time in the future, but in practice almost never does, we end up with more complex programs that are harder to modify when an actual (typically unforeseen ) change comes our way. The best way to future proof your program is to make it simpler , according to the requirement you are currently aware of. If you expect a particular change, sure, plan for it. But for the unexpected, just keep it simple. Because simple is easier to adapt, add to, or rewrite. That said, the simplest solution is rarely the most obvious. Making thing simple does take a bit more time than rushing through the first thing that comes to mind. But it also pays off in a matter of weeks, so it's quite worth it. And if you have a hard time assessing what "simple" means, SLoC is a surprisingly good metric (we have research that shows this). And mostly your modules should be deep: small APIs that hide significant implementations. I think of it as encapsulati

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