3 ms·

Or as I like to say, "incompetence makes the world go round". Extracting little glimpses of functionality out of a chaotic mess is a challenging, at times satis

by cgio 9y ago

Or as I like to say, "incompetence makes the world go round". Extracting little glimpses of functionality out of a chaotic mess is a challenging, at times satisfying and definitely valuable exercise that keeps many people at work... Maintenance is not the opposite of innovation, it is the opposite of good design.

blowski 9y ago
I'm not sure I understand your point - the best built system in the world still needs maintenance. Parts go rusty. Requirements change. Those are not results of bad design, but the inevitable consequences of the real world.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- cgio 9y ago
  The better the design the less the maintenance. There might not be a perfect design in the real world, and we would agree on that. But at least the ideal perfect design would imply zero maintenance.
  - blowski 9y ago
    What happens if requirements change? What happens if a related technology is invented which would make your current design more efficient? Do you class changes like that under maintenance? And how do you check your theoretically 'no-maintenance-required' design genuinely doesn't need any maintenance? And how do you get round the catch 22 that you can't build a perfect system without perfect knowledge about what to build, but you can't have perfect knowledge without feedback from an existing system? Instead of building a product that theoretically never needs maintenance, I'd rather build a product for which maintenance is easy.
    - tormeh 9y ago
      Well, maintenance is what you do to avoid (negative) change. Changing requirements or improvements are not maintenance.
spangry 9y ago
One could also view good maintenance as the antidote to bad design. Or the antidote to "not 100% perfect" design and execution. Nothing's ever perfect. Innovation is to maintenance as inspiration is to perspiration.

3 ms·

Or as I like to say, "incompetence makes the world go round". Extracting little glimpses of functionality out of a chaotic mess is a challenging, at times satis

by cgio 9y ago

blowski 9y ago
I'm not sure I understand your point - the best built system in the world still needs maintenance. Parts go rusty. Requirements change. Those are not results of bad design, but the inevitable consequences of the real world.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- cgio 9y ago
  The better the design the less the maintenance. There might not be a perfect design in the real world, and we would agree on that. But at least the ideal perfect design would imply zero maintenance.
  - blowski 9y ago
    What happens if requirements change? What happens if a related technology is invented which would make your current design more efficient? Do you class changes like that under maintenance? And how do you check your theoretically 'no-maintenance-required' design genuinely doesn't need any maintenance? And how do you get round the catch 22 that you can't build a perfect system without perfect knowledge about what to build, but you can't have perfect knowledge without feedback from an existing system? Instead of building a product that theoretically never needs maintenance, I'd rather build a product for which maintenance is easy.
    - tormeh 9y ago
      Well, maintenance is what you do to avoid (negative) change. Changing requirements or improvements are not maintenance.
spangry 9y ago
One could also view good maintenance as the antidote to bad design. Or the antidote to "not 100% perfect" design and execution. Nothing's ever perfect. Innovation is to maintenance as inspiration is to perspiration.