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This is the most irresponsible thing Joel Spolsky has ever done, and I lost all respect for him after he posted this essay. My bosses at my then-current workpl

This is the most irresponsible thing Joel Spolsky has ever done, and I lost all respect for him after he posted this essay. My bosses at my then-current workplace began using this article as an excuse not to do proper software architecture. I ask you, in what other industry would doing shoddy workmanship be considered an insightful viewpoint? Would you be happy if you discovered you'd hired "The Duct Tape Plumber" to fix a leak in your house? Furthermore, I've actually known real people like the ones Joel Spolsky idealizes: "He is the guy you want on your team building go-carts, because he has two favorite tools: duct tape and WD-40." Spolsky is wrong wrong wrong: you do NOT want this guy on your team. He's the guy who ruins bearings because he uses WD-40 instead of a real lubricant, the guy who spends 40 minutes crafting a duct tape solution rather than take a 20 minute drive to O'Reilly's to get the right part. I had a guy like this work on a truck I used to own; we accidently bought the wrong heater core but rather than get the right one, he figured out it could fit backwards if we cut the panels around it and routed the hoses around it in a loop, and then he covered it in duct tape. The problem is that it wasn't really air tight, so it was no good as a heater because it didn't force the air through. I had to redo it myself with the right part, and had to reattach all the panels he cut.

slantyyz 16y ago
Remember that Joel Spolsky is a brand. He's got products and sites to sell. People should take his articles for what they are - opinion and marketing. Good for some, not for all. In many cases, he has valid opinions, but just like in medicine, more opinions should be sought before making a final decision.
cookiecaper 16y ago
This is an interesting perspective; I took the opposite one. To me, the "duct-tape programmer" that Joel described was not a "duct-tape" programmer at all. He was just a programmer that knew the field and knew when and when not to apply certain languages and methodologies. Certainly we'd all be happy to have jwz onboard our teams, but Joel holds him out as the one exception of a "good" duct-tape programmer. It's just really absurd. Joel's position seems to be "anyone that does not follow the dictates of the latest MEGA XTREME WATERFALL AGILE METHODOLOGY is going to do more damage than good", when really, like in almost everything else, the passing fads are merely empty promises hyped on to make consultants and specialists rich. You may want to read jwz's response, I think it is fairly concise and good: http://jwz.livejournal.com/1096593.html http://jwz.livejournal.com/1096593.html
hristov 16y ago
"The problem is that it wasn't really air tight....." So the problem was that you did not use enough duct tape.
wanderr 16y ago
That story reminds me of my own heater core troubles. I had an old car that sprang a leak in the heater core, dumping antifreeze all over the inside of the car. The cost of having someone replace the heater core and "do it right" was more than the value of the car, and I live in Florida so heat is really only something it would be nice to have 2 or 3 days out of the year. I didn't use duct tape, but I did use a $2 part and some zip ties to bypass the heater core entirely. The car lasted me 3 more years until I got tired of the other problems it was developing and finally decided to give it to a friend. What's the point of my story? Perhaps duct tape isn't always the best solution, but there are certainly times where the application of duct tape (or zip ties) is an appropriate response, the trick is identifying when and where, and being willing and able to do it when it makes sense.

slantyyz 16y ago

Remember that Joel Spolsky is a brand. He's got products and sites to sell. People should take his articles for what they are - opinion and marketing. Good for some, not for all. In many cases, he has valid opinions, but just like in medicine, more opinions should be sought before making a final decision.

cookiecaper 16y ago

This is an interesting perspective; I took the opposite one. To me, the "duct-tape programmer" that Joel described was not a "duct-tape" programmer at all. He was just a programmer that knew the field and knew when and when not to apply certain languages and methodologies. Certainly we'd all be happy to have jwz onboard our teams, but Joel holds him out as the one exception of a "good" duct-tape programmer. It's just really absurd. Joel's position seems to be "anyone that does not follow the dictates of the latest MEGA XTREME WATERFALL AGILE METHODOLOGY is going to do more damage than good", when really, like in almost everything else, the passing fads are merely empty promises hyped on to make consultants and specialists rich. You may want to read jwz's response, I think it is fairly concise and good: http://jwz.livejournal.com/1096593.html http://jwz.livejournal.com/1096593.html

hristov 16y ago

"The problem is that it wasn't really air tight....." So the problem was that you did not use enough duct tape.

wanderr 16y ago

That story reminds me of my own heater core troubles. I had an old car that sprang a leak in the heater core, dumping antifreeze all over the inside of the car. The cost of having someone replace the heater core and "do it right" was more than the value of the car, and I live in Florida so heat is really only something it would be nice to have 2 or 3 days out of the year. I didn't use duct tape, but I did use a $2 part and some zip ties to bypass the heater core entirely. The car lasted me 3 more years until I got tired of the other problems it was developing and finally decided to give it to a friend. What's the point of my story? Perhaps duct tape isn't always the best solution, but there are certainly times where the application of duct tape (or zip ties) is an appropriate response, the trick is identifying when and where, and being willing and able to do it when it makes sense.