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I think this demonstrates nicely one of the common memes amongst the, shall we say, less reflective programmers out there - 'this is a simple problem, I can sol

I think this demonstrates nicely one of the common memes amongst the, shall we say, less reflective programmers out there - 'this is a simple problem, I can solve this easily myself' - the Bob paradox[1] in action. I think the thrill of being able to 'just get stuff done' can have a warping influence on a programmer which causes them to neglect to notice the details which makes the problem at hand a little more complicated than they imagine. It's funny to see how they rationalise problems later as being entirely necessary to the problem (I've witnessed this first hand), and nothing to do with a misapprehension of the difficulty of the problem. Am I the only one here who finds the dailywtf sometimes extremely depressing?! [1]:http://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/being-the-averagest http://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/being-the-averagest

codexon 16y ago
Am I the only one here who finds the dailywtf sometimes extremely depressing?! Take the stories with a huge grain of salt. Many people have complained about their stories being hugely exaggerated before being published. Alex Papadimoulis (the author of the website) has also admitted in an email that he often makes up new stories by embellishing old ones. The email used to be on the following link, but now you must ask the Programming Praxis author for a copy. http://programmingpraxis.com/2009/08/13/the-daily-wtf-maliciously-infringes-programming-praxis-trademark/2/ http://programmingpraxis.com/2009/08/13/the-daily-wtf-malici...
pavlov 16y ago
Am I the only one here who finds the dailywtf sometimes extremely depressing?! My feeling about DailyWTF is similar to visiting an art exhibition with paintings done by an unguided community class. The whole thing is clearly driven by a fundamental need to create something, and many of the exhibited works demonstrate an intoxicating thrill of getting something finished... But at the same time they make it clear why that thrill alone isn't a good enough reason for the work to be shown in public.
SkyMarshal 16y ago
I think of DailyWTF like I think of the modern newspaper and cable news - it's an unrepresentative sample of the population specifically selected for entertainment value, a more highbrow FailBlog.com if you will. At least in DailyWTF's case, it actually entertains. That keeps me from getting too depressed when reading any of them.

codexon 16y ago

Am I the only one here who finds the dailywtf sometimes extremely depressing?! Take the stories with a huge grain of salt. Many people have complained about their stories being hugely exaggerated before being published. Alex Papadimoulis (the author of the website) has also admitted in an email that he often makes up new stories by embellishing old ones. The email used to be on the following link, but now you must ask the Programming Praxis author for a copy. http://programmingpraxis.com/2009/08/13/the-daily-wtf-maliciously-infringes-programming-praxis-trademark/2/ http://programmingpraxis.com/2009/08/13/the-daily-wtf-malici...

pavlov 16y ago

Am I the only one here who finds the dailywtf sometimes extremely depressing?! My feeling about DailyWTF is similar to visiting an art exhibition with paintings done by an unguided community class. The whole thing is clearly driven by a fundamental need to create something, and many of the exhibited works demonstrate an intoxicating thrill of getting something finished... But at the same time they make it clear why that thrill alone isn't a good enough reason for the work to be shown in public.

SkyMarshal 16y ago

I think of DailyWTF like I think of the modern newspaper and cable news - it's an unrepresentative sample of the population specifically selected for entertainment value, a more highbrow FailBlog.com if you will. At least in DailyWTF's case, it actually entertains. That keeps me from getting too depressed when reading any of them.