Slides and audio from a lightning talk by Tom Stuart at Scottish Ruby Conference 2014.
The DHH Problem
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The DHH Problem
1–10 of 15 posts
Re: The DHH Problem
#2Extremely hard to read. Maybe considering porting the message to a different medium?
Re: The DHH Problem
#3TLDR: DHH is human, too.
Re: The DHH Problem
#4Extremely hard to read. Maybe considering porting the message to a different medium?
The DHH Problem:
DHH is an intelligent and successful person. DHH invented rails. And now I can get paid for writing Ruby even though I enjoy it.
So thanks DHH (sincerely).
But. There's a problem. DHH is Ruby famous. Which means that DHH is extremely visible. Some might say disproportionately visible in the ruby community.
Why is that a problem? Because DHH is the Fox News of Ruby.
He's noisy, he's reactionary, he's anti-intellectual. He's very sure that he is right. And he enjoys being rude. (Photo of his famous "fuck you" slide.) That was eight years ago, but things haven't changed much.
Just like Fox News, DHH appeals to common sense and makes a show of being "fair and balanced" but in reality his arguments use aggressive rhetoric and rely on a fix viewpoint.
To pick a topical example: Is TDD hard in Rails apps because TDD is dead or because Rails makes TDD hard? Is TDD not worth the effort because TDD is dead or because the complexity of software can be more managed more effectively if you only work on one product for which you control the requirements? If we only listen to DHH, then we'll never know. Because DHH is just one person. And he only has DHH's experiences.
All I'm saying is the Ruby community is large, and diverse, and thoughtful, and that is why I love it. Please listen to DHH. His experiences are valuable. But DHH does not speak for me, and he probably doesn't speak for you. My personal preference is for a bit less of this ("fuck you" slide) and a bit more of this (slide: "What others do may be the stimulus of our feelings, but never the cause.").
Please give DHH's opinions the weight they deserve: They are what one man thinks. And if you disagree with him: please speak up. Write a blog post, give a talk. Create a web framework. So that we can all learn what the world looks like to you.
Re: The DHH Problem
#5I don't see how this is making things better. Of course people should disagree with DHH, he's one person and we don't have to all agree on everything. In fact it would be far more strange for a programming community to insist on orthodoxy when our problems and work styles certainly differ.
This isn't adding to intelligent dialogue about TDD or best practices any more than the writer is accusing DHH of being detrimental. In fact I thought DHH opened up an interesting dialogue about TDD while he was being the "Fox News of Ruby". There were interesting responses from Martin Fowler, Gary Bernhardt and Kent Beck among others. I felt like the articles and dialogue that I saw in response to DHH really helped me think about programming and the projects I work on. And that's not to dismiss DHH's own comments, which I also found valuable.
This meta DHH slamming seems far more like school yard gossip and mud slinging and "Fox News" than anything DHH actually says. At least even when he's being rude he's actually talking about programming. I've also seen DHH hop on HN threads and provide gists where he refactored code to make his point. That's seriously constructive in a way this talk isn't even aspiring to be.
Re: The DHH Problem
#6TDD is a non-issue for everyone except those using Rails. Be honest, if I had written a blog post saying the same thing, ya'll would have enjoyed trolling me all day, don't lie.
Re: The DHH Problem
#7I don't see how this is making things better. Of course people should disagree with DHH, he's one person and we don't have to all agree on everything. In fact it would be far more strange for a programming community to insist on orthodoxy when our problems and work styles certainly differ. This isn't adding to intelligent dialogue about TDD or best practices any more than the writer is accusing DHH of being detriment…
I don't think there's anything wrong with the meta-commentary that the author provides. He is, after all, encouraging everyone to contribute their own commentary in the same way that Fowler, Bernhardt, and Beck did.
It's sort of like saying we shouldn't ever discuss or scrutinize the reporting done by news outlets. We should only discuss the news they report. I think that's a bit unrealistic.
Re: The DHH Problem
#8TLDR: DHH is human, too.
Yeah, real news at 11 stuff here.
When he posted that first 'TDD is Dead' article, I was like 'that's just like your opinion man.'
Re: The DHH Problem
#9I like DHH (and I've never written a line of Ruby).
He writes thoughtfully (and provocatively, "Fox News" mostly just has the provocatively) about things he likes and dislikes (even when I don't agree his pieces are worth a read).
He created an extremely influential framework (Laravel which keeps me sane working with PHP owes much to it).
All that said I'm really not sure what the point of this video was at all.
Re: The DHH Problem
#10I don't see how this is making things better. Of course people should disagree with DHH, he's one person and we don't have to all agree on everything. In fact it would be far more strange for a programming community to insist on orthodoxy when our problems and work styles certainly differ. This isn't adding to intelligent dialogue about TDD or best practices any more than the writer is accusing DHH of being detriment…
I don't think there's anything wrong with the meta-commentary that the author provides. He is, after all, encouraging everyone to contribute their own commentary in the same way that Fowler, Bernhardt, and Beck did. It's sort of like saying we shouldn't ever discuss or scrutinize the reporting done by news outlets. We should only discuss the news they report. I think that's a bit unrealistic.
There's nothing wrong with meta commentary. Let me be more specific, this strikes me more as an ad hominem attack than real meta commentary.