Some of you seem to be missing the satire here.
I admittedly missed it up until "Never write technical requirements or functional ones." Then I started to re-read, and caught it throughout. Then again, I'm usually not even awake this early.
Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
21–30 of 110 posts
Re: Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
#22> ... it's not about gobbling together the right tools and do some plumbing to make it work. No, it's using tools to craft a work of art. Anyone not recognizing this is an inferior software developer by definition ... So — if you don't prioritize your ego and personal sense of artistry over accomplishing the task, you are an inferior developer? I would never want a person like this on my team.
I mean, I guess that's one way to interpret what he's saying... I interpret it as "have an eye for design and creativity to solve your problems, don't just be mindless and glue together frameworks and libraries". I personally think this is compatible with working on a team.
I've far too often seen code that does look like it's just a bunch of libraries glued together and if you really teased it apart you'd end up with something that's a lot less code and a lot fewer dependencies. And I definitely know people who wouldn't think twice about just adding another dependency to a codebase just so they could use one function. Sometimes that's justified, sometimes it's the result of lazy thinking.
Re: Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
#23> Anyone not recognizing this is an inferior software developer... No True Scotsman at its finest.
We can all agree that real programmers don't eat quiche though, right?
Re: Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
#24While very idealistic and beautiful in a way as all manifests tend to be, we (along the author) tend to forget certain truths - the middle of the gaussian curve is fattest; all natural distributions follow that curve, and developers are no exception. Most of us, by definition, are mediocre. There's nothing that can be done about it. We should not shun, but rather embrace that. Not by deluding ourselves that if we fol…
But surely the purpose of the manifesto is to skew that curve to the right.
One might as well try to skew global IQ stats to the right. And please, don't call me shirley.
Re: Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
#25These lines sound like a recipe for scope/feature creep and never ending development process. >Never do requirement analysis. Never write technical requirements or functional ones. If you do, you have already failed. In that case, how do you know when the software is finished and your contract has been fulfilled? >Creative solutions are often holistic in nature, driven by first-hand experience, discussion, interactio…
Tbh I know what he is saying. Software that is speced up by BA's and driven by their requirements tends to end up being really bad software.
The best software is built up over time as demand arises for those features. Create the feature requests as they are required and implement the requests.
I think one of the major causes of why this type of thinking ends up building bad software is that BAs include literally every corner case they can think of. Ends up being extremely complicated right from the start. Then they miss other requirements. If you build by evolving software from a simple beginning just to scratch an itch, you learn the true requirements from experience. Learning about the optimal architecture from experience as they go.
Hard to do when your working off a software dev contract. Fairly easy to do if your building a product.
It's cathedral vs bazaar.
Re: Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
#26At least grammar check your manifest(o)
Re: Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
#27While very idealistic and beautiful in a way as all manifests tend to be, we (along the author) tend to forget certain truths - the middle of the gaussian curve is fattest; all natural distributions follow that curve, and developers are no exception. Most of us, by definition, are mediocre. There's nothing that can be done about it. We should not shun, but rather embrace that. Not by deluding ourselves that if we fol…
But surely the purpose of the manifesto is to skew that curve to the right.
Or to at least make the author feel like he is part of the right.
Re: Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
But surely the purpose of the manifesto is to skew that curve to the right.
One might as well try to skew global IQ stats to the right. And please, don't call me shirley.
This has been happening over the last 100 years. That's why IQ tests need periodically recalibrated.
Re: Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
One might as well try to skew global IQ stats to the right. And please, don't call me shirley.
This has been happening over the last 100 years. That's why IQ tests need periodically recalibrated.
thing is, the curve remains the same. Fat in the middle.
Re: Anti Mediocracy Manifesto for Software Development
#30While very idealistic and beautiful in a way as all manifests tend to be, we (along the author) tend to forget certain truths - the middle of the gaussian curve is fattest; all natural distributions follow that curve, and developers are no exception. Most of us, by definition, are mediocre. There's nothing that can be done about it. We should not shun, but rather embrace that. Not by deluding ourselves that if we fol…
> all natural distributions follow that curve
No, they don't. Many approximate that curve. Others do not. For examples:
"Bimodal distribution of flowering time in a natural hybrid population of daylily (Hemerocallis fulva) and nightlily (Hemerocallis citrina)" - http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10265-005-0241-3 .
http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Bimodal_distribution lists other bimodal distributions: "the time between eruptions of certain geysers, the color of galaxies, the size of worker weaver ants, the age of incidence of Hodgkin's lymphoma, the speed of inactivation of the drug isoniazid in US adults, the absolute magnitude of novae, and the circadian activity patterns of those crepuscular animals that are active both in morning and evening twilight"
A large number of natural distributions follow a power-law distribution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_law#Examples gives many examples.
That said, you do not need that broad claim to make your argument.