Avoiding Mistakes Can Be a Huge Mistake 268
theodp writes "No doubt many will nod knowingly as they read Paul Graham's The Other Half of 'Artists Ship', which delves into the downside of procedures developed by Big Companies to protect themselves against mistakes. Because every check you put on your programmers has a cost, Graham warns: 'And just as the greatest danger of being hard to sell to is not that you overpay but that the best suppliers won't even sell to you, the greatest danger of applying too many checks to your programmers is not that you'll make them unproductive, but that good programmers won't even want to work for you.' Sound familiar, anyone?"
It's official (Score:3, Funny)
From TFA: "Programmers are unlike many types of workers in that the best ones actually prefer to work hard."
Thanks for telling me I suck, Paul. Now excuse me while I loaf.
Re:Perhaps (Score:5, Funny)
Do programmers also loose karma for being fast and lose with their spelling?
Re:Perhaps (Score:4, Funny)
Do programmers also loose karma for being fast and lose with their spelling?
/irony
Re:Perhaps (Score:5, Funny)
Do programmers also loose karma for being fast and lose with their spelling?
/irony
They can be docked karma that way, but when they're not sure about something, they can cover their asses and submit anonymously. That way, if something totally whooshes over their heads, they're in the clear. They can later correct their own dumbass mistakes unanonymously and whore karma instead of losing it. What a perfect system!
Re:Perhaps (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Perhaps (Score:3, Funny)
The "robustness" test isn't good enough either. Sometimes poor implementations of good ideas spurn enough innovation and demand that its marginal quality is irrelevant. The early web browsers, email programs, etc.. were likely neither robust or well implemented. On the other hand, some solid, robust good implementations of ideas are so intractable, that at best they merely serve the original purpose, and at worst are like an albatross around the necks of future developers ( usb anybody ?).
David Parnas proposed that a poor programmer could create demand for dozens of programmers; a unique software situation, as a poor mechanical engineer doesn't scale nearly so well.
Re:Perhaps (Score:5, Funny)
Google is evil incarnated, Apple is style-over-function overpriced junk, and "The Year of The Linux Desktop" ain't coming soon.
Microsoft, on the other hand, has some really funny employees [youtube.com] (and Reversi).
/em ducks
I don't care who wrote the article (Score:3, Funny)
This sort of thinking does not justify the new userpage.
Re:Perhaps (Score:5, Funny)
Do programmers also loose karma for being fast and lose with their spelling?
/irony
They can be docked karma that way, but when they're not sure about something, they can cover their asses and submit anonymously. That way, if something totally whooshes over their heads, they're in the clear. They can later correct their own dumbass mistakes unanonymously and whore karma instead of losing it. What a perfect system!
Huh. Too bad Slashdot doesn't have a system like that.
Comment removed (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Perhaps (Score:5, Funny)
/irony
/woosh
/irony
Error: Cyclic Dependency
Re: loose karma (Score:4, Funny)
Yes! Free Karma... right after Willie! I'm starting a grassroots movement to save the Karma from untimely demises.
Re:Perhaps (Score:2, Funny)
Do programmers also loose karma for being fast and lose with their spelling?
/irony
They can be docked karma that way, but when they're not sure about something, they can cover their asses and submit anonymously. That way, if something totally whooshes over their heads, they're in the clear. They can later correct their own dumbass mistakes unanonymously and whore karma instead of losing it. What a perfect system!
Huh. Too bad Slashdot doesn't have a system like that.
/irony
I think I'm starting to get the hang of this!
Re:I have mixed feelings. (Score:5, Funny)
Annoying, but easy to handle. Testers love to find bugs, whether it be for the joy of crushing a young programmer's spirit, or for the look of fear in the eyes of the product manager as the release date approaches. Point a tester towards the bug, and he'll go right ahead and write a defect, possibly cackling evilly as he does so.
Re:Perhaps (Score:5, Funny)
wow, a Beowulf cluster of /irony
Re:Agreed, Too Much Oversight Kills (Score:1, Funny)
"Then we got acquired by a giant 3-letter company..."
May I guess? It should be HP or Dell...
Re:Perhaps (Score:0, Funny)
For the love of $deity, its "couldn't care less" !
Yours sincerely,
QA.