The Mythical Man-Month in the age of AI

Last weekend I watched four people desperately trying to get a laptop to connect to a screen. I was happily observing their efforts, with zero intent to join in. But someone nudged me: can't you have a look at it? My reply: "Haha sorry no! My experience is that adding more people will not solve this problem any quicker". I was of course -- indirectly -- reffering to Brooks's Law: "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later." It was formulated by computer scientist Frederick P. Brooks Jr. in his 1975 book The Mythical Man-Month, based on his experience managing the IBM OS/360 project. However I got to thinking. Does this still hold up in the age of AI agents and LLMs? At first glance, you’d think no. The traditional bottlenecks -- onboarding time, endless stand-ups, and office politics -- disappear overnight. An AI agent is up to speed in milliseconds and doesn't demand a coffee break. But when you look closer, and the law hasn't vanished. It just mutated. The famous…