I once wrote to John Carmack as a Quake-obsessed kid, asking for any advice he has for an aspiring programmer and if he had any favourite books. To my surprise

I once wrote to John Carmack as a Quake-obsessed kid, asking for any advice he has for an aspiring programmer and if he had any favourite books. To my surprise he wrote back a really thoughtful response, including the following: "Read The Mythical Man Month. I remember thinking that a book that old can't say anything relevant about software development today, but I was wrong."