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I've noticed when your organisation gets to a certain size, it is inevitable that you will end up working with someone who believes in an "everything is X" ferv

by mfDjB 6y ago

I've noticed when your organisation gets to a certain size, it is inevitable that you will end up working with someone who believes in an "everything is X" fervently enough to do damage. The most common one I've seen is backend developers trying to force frontend to adopt backend paradigms (such as everything is a service, even libraries, and must be communicated to over RPC calls). They tend not to care about the collateral damage or nuances, they want to order the software according to their beliefs. Once you recognise this you can see the same pattern repeating in a lot of other non-software disciplines. I guess it's just a personality type.

ktpsns 6y ago
This mentality is also called: "if you have a hammer, every problem is a nail". I guess this paradigm is much older then programming :-)
- scoot 6y ago
  Close. "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/if_all_you_have_is_a_hammer,_everything_looks_like_a_nail https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/if_all_you_have_is_a_hammer,_...
generalizations 6y ago
Seeems like the problem is when it's misapplied - I don't doubt what you're saying, but it has seemed like *nix got pretty far with the 'everything is a file' paradigm.
- whatshisface 6y ago
  'nix doesn't actually think everything is a file. At most that's a user/programmer interface thing. Imagine how bad it would be if some insane zealot demanded that everything inside the kernel had to be a file!
  - generalizations 6y ago
    Yeah, I don't know much about kernel design. At least at the OS level, the 'everything a file' paradigm has made things far easier and cleaner.
ramshorns 6y ago
Everything is a everything.
bsder 6y ago
> (such as everything is a service, even libraries, and must be communicated to over RPC calls) In big companies this is often less "everything is an <X>" and more "By strongly delineating boundaries, I can prevent you from screwing me over". If you have to communicate with my pieces as a service, you have to tell me what you need and you can't blame me for not delivering it when you didn't tell me. You can't say I'm blocking you if I can point that my service is up and answering. etc.

by mfDjB 6y ago

ktpsns 6y ago

This mentality is also called: "if you have a hammer, every problem is a nail". I guess this paradigm is much older then programming :-)

scoot 6y ago
Close. "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/if_all_you_have_is_a_hammer,_everything_looks_like_a_nail https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/if_all_you_have_is_a_hammer,_...

generalizations 6y ago

Seeems like the problem is when it's misapplied - I don't doubt what you're saying, but it has seemed like *nix got pretty far with the 'everything is a file' paradigm.

whatshisface 6y ago
'nix doesn't actually think everything is a file. At most that's a user/programmer interface thing. Imagine how bad it would be if some insane zealot demanded that everything inside the kernel had to be a file!
- generalizations 6y ago
  Yeah, I don't know much about kernel design. At least at the OS level, the 'everything a file' paradigm has made things far easier and cleaner.

ramshorns 6y ago

Everything is a everything.

bsder 6y ago

> (such as everything is a service, even libraries, and must be communicated to over RPC calls) In big companies this is often less "everything is an <X>" and more "By strongly delineating boundaries, I can prevent you from screwing me over". If you have to communicate with my pieces as a service, you have to tell me what you need and you can't blame me for not delivering it when you didn't tell me. You can't say I'm blocking you if I can point that my service is up and answering. etc.