Tractability, Testability, and Joyful Work

Fred Brooks is remembered for his Christian faith and for many contributions to computer hardware and software design, management, research, and education. Brooks is known particularly for his 1975 book, The Mythical Man-Month, which includes reflections on unique joys, as well as management challenges, of software development. Computer programmers, according to Brooks, work in a tractable medium: What one imagines may be readily constructed, with few constraints imposed by the medium. And yet, in contrast to other kinds of creative work, the construct produced is testable: It is possible to determine experimentally, in a repeatable and unambiguous way, whether one has succeeded or failed. Here I consider whether these ideas of tractability and testability might contribute to our understanding of what makes (or could make) other kinds of work joyful. I also consider Brooks as a model for Christian vocation, as Brooks’s writing provides the basis for a definition of joyful work grounded in a Christian understanding of the human person, made in the image of God.