Book · 2021
Modern Software Engineering
by David Farley
Dave Farley argues that software engineering is a discipline with repeatable principles — 73 Reddit threads mostly shrug, then mostly agree.
What does Reddit think of Modern Software Engineering?
That neutrality isn't dislike. It's closer to quiet respect with a side of irrelevance. r/ExperiencedDevs passes around the Dave Farley "10x engineer" framing — his claim that the real trick is eliminating the 90% of rework that average engineers generate for themselves. The ↑118 comment from that sub finds that credible. R/cscareerquestions uses the phrase "modern software engineering" more as shorthand for industry standards than as a citation of the book specifically, which muddies the signal. R/programming is more skeptical. The ↑84 comment dismantles a DRY refactoring example from the book as a straw man: the author pre-loads future change to make the refactor look bad. Not a dismissal, but a shrug at the evidence quality. R/devops contributed 6 mentions without apparent controversy. Seventy-three unique commenters across 73 total mentions means nobody is returning for more.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · Iterative delivery and incremental development as core engineering practice
- · Separating software engineering from mere coding or computer science
- · The business case for technical discipline and reduced rework
- · Empirical feedback loops over upfront planning
- · Why interview culture gets software engineering wrong
Common praise
- + R/ExperiencedDevs cites the rework-elimination framing as the clearest case for why senior engineers actually save time, per the ↑118 endorsement.
- + The incremental delivery argument resonates with the ↑109 r/programming commenter who spent years arguing for 'the simplest thing that could possibly work' against resistant colleagues.
- + Farley's discipline-over-craft positioning gives teams a vocabulary for pushing back on cowboy deadlines without sounding precious.
Common criticism
- − The ↑84 r/programming comment calls the DRY refactoring example a straw man — the author pre-loads future change to make the refactor look bad.
- − The book gets name-dropped in r/cscareerquestions more as ambient cultural shorthand than as something people have actually read and applied.
Who it's for
Mid-career engineers who already know CI/CD exists but haven't fully bought the philosophical case for it will get the most out of this. If you've argued with a senior developer who refuses incremental delivery because they 'saw this fail in 2003,' Farley gives you the rebuttal in the ↑109 r/programming thread. The book is less useful for engineers whose teams already run tight feedback loops — you'll recognize every chapter. Complete beginners will find the abstraction level frustrating before they have enough scar tissue to appreciate it.
Mentions over time
Which Reddit comments matter for Modern Software Engineering?
Top-upvoted quotes across the subreddits where this book is mentioned. Click through to read the full thread.
“One of the SUPER common interview questions at LOTS of companies is "what happens when you type a URL in a browser and hit enter", and it doesn't take long to realize a HUGE chunk of that is networking. That should tell you something meaningful, like, modern software engineering is almost entirely …
“> "The current code defaults to believing everything is broken until proven otherwise. This is the only rational way to view modern software engineering. > > To fix this is to suggest that we deserve green checkmarks. We do not. Leave the red warning signs as a monument to our sins." Amazing
“Modern Software Engineering. Dave Farley has said that others describe him as a 10x engineer. The secret? Eliminate the 90% of rework that 1x engineers make for themselves.
“Not true for the most part. Maybe if you've been working in a cobol job for 30-40 years and then retire, they maybe will pay you some big bucks as a contractor to do your old job. Most of the big buck jobs are at the big tech companies and unicorns. They typically hire for fundamental CS knowledge a…
“> Reluctant to embrace newer technical paradigms as they have ‘seen this before and it didn’t work then, it won’t work now’ My personal experience of #1 as a 52-year-old developer arguing with the young ones on this: I argued they should work incrementally and deliver the simplest thing that could …
“The modern software engineering interview circuit used by companies like Google is what employers have settled on as the "best" legal alternative to IQ tests.
“Yet another example of someone trying to be edgy and completely failing to backup their point. The first example about DRY refactoring is extremely weak. The author picked a straw man example and then said “this is bad because I know in advance that it’s going to change so it doesn’t make sense”. …
“While that would be nice, ultimately I don't really care about the programming language, but the workflow around it. Adding any file into a UE4 project that's not a predefined Actor.h/.cpp pair is a pain, not to mention creating editor-time Visualizers and their components... there's just so much …
Convinced? Pick up Modern Software Engineering
Readers also mention
Books that share discussion threads with Modern Software Engineering — counted from the comments, not curated.
A Philosophy of Software Design
John Ousterhout
A Stanford professor's 200-page rebuttal to Clean Code, built on interface depth rather than method length.
Head First Design Patterns
Eric Freeman
A pattern book that shows up on every 'essential reading' list while experienced devs debate whether you still need the Head First version.
The Clean Coder
Robert C. Martin
Uncle Bob's professionalism manual: say no to bad estimates, refuse death marches, and work the 40 hours then study on your own time.
The Pragmatic Programmer
Andy Hunt
Two veterans hand you a checklist for the craft: don't write code you don't need, own your tools, and fix the broken window before someone else does.
Design Patterns
Erich Gamma
The 1994 Gang of Four catalog that named 23 object-oriented patterns, gave developers a shared vocabulary, and taught a generation to over-apply both.
Refactoring
Martin Fowler
Martin Fowler's catalog of named moves for cleaning up code that already works, cited 116 times across Reddit in 7 years as the Clean Code alternative people actually prefer.
Modern Software Engineering — frequently asked
What does Reddit actually think of Modern Software Engineering?+
Broadly neutral, trending toward quiet approval. R/programming (15 mentions) is more mixed — the ↑84 comment picked apart a specific example as a straw man. Nobody is angry at it.
Is Modern Software Engineering worth reading if I already follow XP or DevOps practices?+
Probably not urgently. If you can already name the Four Key Metrics and run trunk-based development, you're the target reader who has already graduated.
How does Modern Software Engineering compare to Clean Code on Reddit?+
Clean Code gets debated far more aggressively. Modern Software Engineering's flat sentiment across r/ExperiencedDevs, r/cscareerquestions, and r/programming means it generates less heat. Farley avoids Clean Code's pattern of specific refactors that readers can dissect line by line — except in one case that r/programming flagged at ↑84 upvotes.
Should I read Modern Software Engineering before or after Accelerate?+
After, or in parallel. R/devops (6 mentions) and r/ExperiencedDevs treat the books as complementary rather than competing. Accelerate gives you the empirical data; Farley gives you the engineering philosophy that explains why those metrics matter. Reading Farley cold, without the Four Key Metrics context, makes the argument feel more abstract than it needs to.