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What factors explain the nature of software?

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Re: What factors explain the nature of software?

#61

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

datadrivenangel wrote: post #27
browningstreet wrote: post #2

I was once the CTO of a financial services firm that had been founded by a non-technical person. When I was hired the code base was in poor shape. With a bit of guidance we overhauled the codebase in 3 months and swept clean about 15 years of technical debt. They were using a 13 year old version of the compiler. New clients were requiring audits and attestations we wouldn’t have been able to pass. I was able to hire…

Would it be ethical in a situation like this to hide all the technical improvements and just show the increased speed of client facing delivery? Seems like everyone would be happier.

Using the word "hide" in any scenario should immediately get your spidey-sense tingling.

Re: What factors explain the nature of software?

#62

Post by ak_111 »

browningstreet wrote: post #2

I was once the CTO of a financial services firm that had been founded by a non-technical person. When I was hired the code base was in poor shape. With a bit of guidance we overhauled the codebase in 3 months and swept clean about 15 years of technical debt. They were using a 13 year old version of the compiler. New clients were requiring audits and attestations we wouldn’t have been able to pass. I was able to hire…

I have a meta question here, am always curious when seemingly competent engineer such as yourself put up with this kind of management.

It is unbearable to work for someone who doesn't appreciate your work let alone belittles truly hard-earned achievements, for example that statement when he demanded you get 4000% rather than 2000% that you achieved would have made me quit on the spot.

Further from the sounds of it this sounds like a random finance company and with your skills you could have easily walked into any tech/finance company so I am curious why you remained at this company and didn't quit sooner?

Re: What factors explain the nature of software?

#63

Post by davidthewatson »

This is my multidisciplinary improvisation after cursory scan. Please forgive me. I'll revisit to make sure I'm not repeating the OP or the author.

Liminal is key here. I believe this arises from the fact that we frequently have the luxury of simplicity in software enabled by the fact that the imaginary part is that things like generic pointers allow us to pretend as if a physics of software is non-existent, at least until computational complexity catches up and re-asserts physics dominance over our control theory from the stoics.

What's missing is extensibility. In particular, infinite extensibility. All hail Alan Kay.

The relationship between those two has puzzled me for a while, at least since I started writing on this topic post-Covid.

The last things I wrote were along the lines of "bringing Lacan to software" - getting at the idea that there was a Lacanian frame there which needed further exploration. Reminds me of reading the history of cybernetics which IIRC shares the greek root with Kubernetes.

Lev Manovich should get some credit for applying McLuhan's idea of hybridization to software more specifically than McLuhan's target: technology beyond media.

https://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/blog/2014/09/10/the-softwa...

Re: What factors explain the nature of software?

#65

Post by swader999 »

rqtwteye wrote: post #30
bluefirebrand wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but, on the other hand, being client focused and continuously delivering client facing feature, might be the thing that keeps the revenu streams coming I firmly reject this. If you can't build quality then you don't deserve to be in business I'm so sick of the fact that everyone is ok accepting "just barely passable" It has lead to everything new being built is crap. New housing is crap, new furniture is crap, new…

I have learned over the years that there are different types of devs. Some are ok with cranking out features without regard for overall architecture and can handle the chaos of constant quick fixes over previous quick fixes. There are others (like me) who like well designed systems and get stressed when they are asked to just crank out features without regard for the overall system. Personally I believe that my appro…

People love to be the hero that swoops in and saves the day. From the hot mess they created the past year.

Re: What factors explain the nature of software?

#67

Post by chrisweekly »

whilenot-dev wrote: post #28
spit2wind wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CatB is a fine book. That feels like such add choice for the situation, aside from just seeing if the person was willing to engage with ideas within software. I'm curious what texts people would suggest for a non-developer to get some insight. The ones that come to my mind are the Mythical Man Month, Peopleware, Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering by Glass, or maybe even the 1968 NATO report on software engin…

6 years ago I gave a C-level guy a fresh copy of Perform or Else [0] on my way out. I don't know if he even read it. [0]: https://www.routledge.com/Perform-or-Else-From-Discipline-to...

I followed the link and -- $180 for the hardcover? wat.

Re: What factors explain the nature of software?

#68

Post by swozey »

browningstreet wrote: post #2

I was once the CTO of a financial services firm that had been founded by a non-technical person. When I was hired the code base was in poor shape. With a bit of guidance we overhauled the codebase in 3 months and swept clean about 15 years of technical debt. They were using a 13 year old version of the compiler. New clients were requiring audits and attestations we wouldn’t have been able to pass. I was able to hire…

Ahh yes, reading this as an SRE. This is the average Ops team experience, having to find ways to prove that we're not a cost center (I cut out AWS bill down 40% last year migrating to ARM64) because your work isn't blasted on the front page of a product changelog.

And things... "just work," Until they don't. And they did because of the front loaded work we did correctly to keep things working.

Re: What factors explain the nature of software?

#69

Post by elevation »

Another factor explaining the nature of software is the outsized influence of the shape, politics, and dysfunctions of the org that produced it. When I've dug into proprietary legacy software, some design decisions can only be explained by "we had to do it this way because prevented us from doing it the right way.

Re: What factors explain the nature of software?

#70

Post by whilenot-dev »

chrisweekly wrote: post #67
whilenot-dev wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6 years ago I gave a C-level guy a fresh copy of Perform or Else [0] on my way out. I don't know if he even read it. [0]: https://www.routledge.com/Perform-or-Else-From-Discipline-to...

I followed the link and -- $180 for the hardcover? wat.

Agree, I bought the paperback.
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