Professional Corner-Cutting (2016)
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Professional Corner-Cutting (2016)
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Re: Professional Corner-Cutting (2016)
#2Am I hallucinating, or does anyone remember the Steve Jobs story as the exact opposite? He used backs of a cabinet as an example of when it’s okay to cut corners, since nobody would ever see it. I don’t remember where I heard it or what the context was, but it was something along the lines of him trying to get one of the early Mac engineers to ship faster.
There was a lot of corner cutting to get the original iPhone launched. They barely made it in time. The parts that mattered were polished to perfection, but you wouldn’t want to use an iPhone 1 today — all the other parts you take for granted now would be painfully visible then.
Re: Professional Corner-Cutting (2016)
#3TL;DR.
Cutting corners sometimes makes sense -- that's why timeboxing is important. But always?
Re: Professional Corner-Cutting (2016)
#4I like the last paragraph. Will remember that when an engineer slows down a project talking about code smells and revisiting architecture decisions.
> Professional software developers are performing a service for others. That’s the difference between a professional and a hobbyist or an artist.
Re: Professional Corner-Cutting (2016)
#5I like the last paragraph. Will remember that when an engineer slows down a project talking about code smells and revisiting architecture decisions. > Professional software developers are performing a service for others. That’s the difference between a professional and a hobbyist or an artist.
I'd probably drop the "or an artist" in the retelling though. Lots of artists are definitionally performing for others.
Re: Professional Corner-Cutting (2016)
#6Am I hallucinating, or does anyone remember the Steve Jobs story as the exact opposite? He used backs of a cabinet as an example of when it’s okay to cut corners, since nobody would ever see it. I don’t remember where I heard it or what the context was, but it was something along the lines of him trying to get one of the early Mac engineers to ship faster. There was a lot of corner cutting to get the original iPhone…
“When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”
Re: Professional Corner-Cutting (2016)
#7I like the last paragraph. Will remember that when an engineer slows down a project talking about code smells and revisiting architecture decisions. > Professional software developers are performing a service for others. That’s the difference between a professional and a hobbyist or an artist.
> code smells and revisiting architecture decisions
This is exactly what we're dealing with on top of shipping new features. An architectural decision that got changed 6 months later so the code had to be thrown out and re-written.
Don't blame the engineers, blame the architects. If you have any.
Re: Professional Corner-Cutting (2016)
#8Am I hallucinating, or does anyone remember the Steve Jobs story as the exact opposite? He used backs of a cabinet as an example of when it’s okay to cut corners, since nobody would ever see it. I don’t remember where I heard it or what the context was, but it was something along the lines of him trying to get one of the early Mac engineers to ship faster. There was a lot of corner cutting to get the original iPhone…
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Re: Professional Corner-Cutting (2016)
#9Am I hallucinating, or does anyone remember the Steve Jobs story as the exact opposite? He used backs of a cabinet as an example of when it’s okay to cut corners, since nobody would ever see it. I don’t remember where I heard it or what the context was, but it was something along the lines of him trying to get one of the early Mac engineers to ship faster. There was a lot of corner cutting to get the original iPhone…
“When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”
Not only would a professional carpenter use plywood, it may be a sounder choice because of its stability/weight ratio.
Re: Professional Corner-Cutting (2016)
#10I like the last paragraph. Will remember that when an engineer slows down a project talking about code smells and revisiting architecture decisions. > Professional software developers are performing a service for others. That’s the difference between a professional and a hobbyist or an artist.
> code smells and revisiting architecture decisions This is exactly what we're dealing with on top of shipping new features. An architectural decision that got changed 6 months later so the code had to be thrown out and re-written. Don't blame the engineers, blame the architects. If you have any.
You’re correct, I was thinking of a specific software architect when I wrote that.