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I recently found myself trying to describe modern software techniques to a layman, who is a carpenter. "Its like this - you're hired to build a house. First,
by somesortofsystm 7y ago
I recently found myself trying to describe modern software techniques to a layman, who is a carpenter.
"Its like this - you're hired to build a house. First, you have to go get someone motivated to harvest the raw materials for you - designs, logic, etc. - which will then be turned into the 'raw wood' that holds up the walls and keeps the roof on. Then, when that person is busy getting the materials cut, you start building the tools you know you're going to need, to get the walls up and strung together. You don't have these tools yet, because you left all the previous ones you've worked with at a previous construction site. The reason for this is that you are going to use the tools to put the walls up, sure - but then you're going to glue all the tools in place to make sure the walls stay up. That glue is the most powerful stuff in the universe, but it will fail catastrophically if you don't put the tools at just the right angle in the glueball .."
Basically, you glue all the new tools together, cover them in wood, and leave them in place so that the thing doesn't fall over ...
- jaywalk 7y agoFor the sake of anyone who uses your software, I hope you're better at writing code than coming up with metaphors.
- somesortofsystm 7y agoExactly. That's software development for you. :P
- mr-ron 7y agoI legitimately don't understand this metaphor at all
- mywittyname 7y agoI think it's like, 1) get a product owner to describe requirements (not sure why they are gathering raw mats instead of producing blue prints) 2) He tries to steal code from previous jobs to bring to new jobs, because he pretend that he "owns" them. 3) He can't steal code from previous jobs because he left them in the walls. 4) Javascript is glue.
- mr-ron 7y agoBut why is he gluing the tools?
- somesortofsystm 7y agoThey need to be there to keep the walls from falling over. :P
- somesortofsystm 7y agoJavascript: just, no. Never. .. dunno where you got that Javascript snark from, nor did I even mention 'raw mats', but it seems you got the picture because you immediately added your own invented mess to the scene. Congratulations, you must be a software developer.
- Jaruzel 7y agoI'm not sure about 'modern software techniques' but to me, you seem to be describing Minecraft. :D
- somesortofsystm 7y agoTake bit of this, a bit of that, string them together to make a tool that will do one thing. Put that tool between two other parts, and glue it in place. Eventually, you get the house built and - if you're good - it looks pretty good and it keeps the kids warm. But don't, ever, look between the walls. You won't be happy with all the thorny and spikey bits that are glued in place. And yeah, there's quite a lot of hammers and drills and saws literally glued in place - don't touch a single one. They belong there.