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Same could be said for programming regarding prose. You can write beautiful code (modularized, great exception handling, proper form, etc.) that doesn't solve

by matt_s 9y ago

Same could be said for programming regarding prose. You can write beautiful code (modularized, great exception handling, proper form, etc.) that doesn't solve the problem properly or write ugly code (huge monolith, repeated code, meh error handling) that solves a large business problem. An ugly monolith that solves pain is going to be worth more than a beautiful piece of software that doesn't solve the pain. I'm not saying you can't have both, just that writing beautiful code by itself doesn't help, much like very good prose in novel writing.

runevault 9y ago
Sure, but I'm saying even something that is beautiful and does offer a decent amount of emotional impact still isn't guaranteed success, either from simply not being found or not hitting the right emotion that impacts a wide swath of people. And trying to do that is mostly guesswork, since it is a regularly moving line.
bambax 9y ago
Well okay, but there's a big difference between code and literature, which is that the end user of software doesn't read the code: the code isn't the product, it's what the code does. It could of course be argued that in literature what is said is more important than how it is said, but at least it has to be understandable. You don't have to have a wonderful prose to be a great author, but at least people need to be able to figure out (some of) what you are saying.
- ghaff 9y ago
  >but at least it has to be understandable And then there is James Joyce :-)
- CM30 9y ago
  > It could of course be argued that in literature what is said is more important than how it is said This could be said about most things to be honest. What something says or does is generally more important than how exactly it does, regardless of whether the thing is a book or a piece of tech or anything else in between. It's one of the reasons so many startups and projects struggle, because they think their work is going to be about solving a programming problem while it's actually about solving a marketing/network/human one. So many people all programming community software to become the next Facebook or Reddit or whatever else. So many losing to some guy setting up a forum script because the latter actually focused on the community and the former were interested in the shiny tech.

by matt_s 9y ago

runevault 9y ago

Sure, but I'm saying even something that is beautiful and does offer a decent amount of emotional impact still isn't guaranteed success, either from simply not being found or not hitting the right emotion that impacts a wide swath of people. And trying to do that is mostly guesswork, since it is a regularly moving line.

bambax 9y ago

Well okay, but there's a big difference between code and literature, which is that the end user of software doesn't read the code: the code isn't the product, it's what the code does. It could of course be argued that in literature what is said is more important than how it is said, but at least it has to be understandable. You don't have to have a wonderful prose to be a great author, but at least people need to be able to figure out (some of) what you are saying.

ghaff 9y ago
>but at least it has to be understandable And then there is James Joyce :-)
CM30 9y ago
> It could of course be argued that in literature what is said is more important than how it is said This could be said about most things to be honest. What something says or does is generally more important than how exactly it does, regardless of whether the thing is a book or a piece of tech or anything else in between. It's one of the reasons so many startups and projects struggle, because they think their work is going to be about solving a programming problem while it's actually about solving a marketing/network/human one. So many people all programming community software to become the next Facebook or Reddit or whatever else. So many losing to some guy setting up a forum script because the latter actually focused on the community and the former were interested in the shiny tech.