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Great example. This is something I struggle with myself, but it especially annoys me when my non-engineer friends complain about bugs or missing features when w
by kiawe_fire 5y ago
Great example. This is something I struggle with myself, but it especially annoys me when my non-engineer friends complain about bugs or missing features when we game together.
“Why can’t I just do {x}, it would be easy to implement, any programmer could do it, why are {y company}’s developers so incompetent”.
Now I have a link to send them rather than awkwardly coming up with an example on the spot of why {x} is probably way more complicated than it seems, assuming you want it to actually work in any meaningful way.
- dkdbejwi383 5y agoI've found that asking non-engineers to explain to me how to make a cup of tea can be helpful in explaining why software development is so complex. They'll usually say something like "boil the kettle, pour the water in the cup and wait a few minutes" So then you go in and probe all the requirements and edge cases: - what if there's no water in the kettle? - what if there's no power to the kettle? - what if we're out of tea bags? - how do I know when the kettle is boiled? - can I put the tea bag in the cup while the kettle boils, or do I need to wait for the kettle to be ready first? - what size cup do I need? - how do I remove the tea bag? - what if there are no clean spoons?