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I really dislike this software development meme: that you should care more about why one tool is superior to the other than just knowing how to use any of them
by 0xbadcafebee 5y ago
I really dislike this software development meme: that you should care more about why one tool is superior to the other than just knowing how to use any of them well.
If you hired Larry Haun and his brother to frame a new house, they'd have it done in a day or two with nothing but nails, a hammer, a SkilSaw, a framing square, a chalk line and some chalk. If you hired some random contractor, it'd probably take six guys a month, go way over budget, the job would be a mess, and they'd have used 15 different tools.
Larry is better not because his tools are better, or because one tool emphasizes how to use it the right way. Larry just knows his tools and knows how to do the job well with them. And that isn't to say that using any tool at all is fine; an unsharpened rip saw will take a hell of a lot longer to use than Larry's SkilSaw. But the outcome of the project still depends way more on Larry's skill than his SkilSaw.
- caditinpiscinam 5y agoSoftware aside, I just checked out Larry Haun's videos -- very cool!
- freewilly1040 5y agoThis kind of discussion is more relevant to inheriting projects than constructing them from scratch. To take an example I’ve inherited several Ruby on Rails apps from novices at big cos. The language takes the perspective that everything should be easy, so apps get rickety fast without diligent programmers. Which is a good goal but not something you will always have control over.
- 0xbadcafebee 5y agoI think this presumes that working on projects built by novices is something we have to resign ourselves to. We could demand real engineering licenses for software, real apprenticeships, and a common 'zoning code'. But we have to push for it and not accept the status quo.