5 ms·

This essay contains the famous "Worse is Better" section, made popular by Jamie Zawinski https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/cs181/projects/2010-11

This essay contains the famous "Worse is Better" section, made popular by Jamie Zawinski https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/cs181/projects/2010-11/WorseIsBetter/index.php/Worse-is-better.html https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/cs181/projec... Summarized as: "When tradeoffs are required in a software system, priority should go to implementation simplicity at the expense of completeness or correctness." See also the wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worse_is_better https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worse_is_better An interesting aspect of all this is that Gabriel argues with himself in a series of papers under a false name: https://dreamsongs.com/Files/worse-is-worse.pdf https://dreamsongs.com/Files/worse-is-worse.pdf A great example of someone looking at both sides of an argument.

rileyphone 5y ago
“Worse is better” is in my opinion the crux of software engineering. If you look around it’s pervasive and can even be extrapolated to other areas.
- layer8 5y ago
  I don’t really see priority going to implementation simplicity much in practice. (Completeness and correctness gets expended nevertheless alright.)
- michaelbrave 5y ago
  I mean, this is why we have version numbers
chalst 5y ago
RPG has an amusing summary article in which he recounts his failure to figure out whether he was right about this https://dreamsongs.com/WorseIsBetter.html https://dreamsongs.com/WorseIsBetter.html
MaxBarraclough 5y ago
> A great example of someone looking at both sides of an argument. I don't think so, we now call that kind of behaviour a sock puppet account. Why the deception?
- nickkell 5y ago
  They weren't doing it to support their original position, but rather arguing against it.
- caslon 5y ago
  It was pretty obvious what was happening; naming your fictional debate partner after the most famous pseudonym of all time is as transparent as you can get. There's a long history of people doing exactly this in a variety of fields; it's not deception.
- chalst 5y ago
  The name was "Nickieben Bourbaki", a reference to the collective pseudonym "Nicholas Borbaki" of the French mathematician collective. RPG had the idea that other people at Lucid would be interested in participating under this collective name, but that didn't happen.
- recursivedoubts 5y ago
  these were simpler times mapping today's online behavior onto them is misleading
- jhgb 5y ago
  > we now call that kind of behaviour a sock puppet account Maybe it was a Socratic puppet.
  - recursivedoubts 5y ago
    the most underrated post in the history of hacker news
    - yellowapple 5y ago
amelius 5y ago
> priority should go to implementation simplicity at the expense of completeness or correctness https://xkcd.com/221/ https://xkcd.com/221/
pphysch 5y ago
If "good enough" is "worse" than "perfect", then "worse" is indeed "better". Perfect things never leave the drawing board; good enough things make it into production. Know thy tolerances.

rileyphone 5y ago

“Worse is better” is in my opinion the crux of software engineering. If you look around it’s pervasive and can even be extrapolated to other areas.

layer8 5y ago
I don’t really see priority going to implementation simplicity much in practice. (Completeness and correctness gets expended nevertheless alright.)
michaelbrave 5y ago
I mean, this is why we have version numbers

chalst 5y ago

RPG has an amusing summary article in which he recounts his failure to figure out whether he was right about this https://dreamsongs.com/WorseIsBetter.html https://dreamsongs.com/WorseIsBetter.html

MaxBarraclough 5y ago

> A great example of someone looking at both sides of an argument. I don't think so, we now call that kind of behaviour a sock puppet account. Why the deception?

nickkell 5y ago
They weren't doing it to support their original position, but rather arguing against it.
caslon 5y ago
It was pretty obvious what was happening; naming your fictional debate partner after the most famous pseudonym of all time is as transparent as you can get. There's a long history of people doing exactly this in a variety of fields; it's not deception.
chalst 5y ago
The name was "Nickieben Bourbaki", a reference to the collective pseudonym "Nicholas Borbaki" of the French mathematician collective. RPG had the idea that other people at Lucid would be interested in participating under this collective name, but that didn't happen.
recursivedoubts 5y ago
these were simpler times mapping today's online behavior onto them is misleading
jhgb 5y ago
> we now call that kind of behaviour a sock puppet account Maybe it was a Socratic puppet.
- recursivedoubts 5y ago
  the most underrated post in the history of hacker news
  - yellowapple 5y ago

amelius 5y ago

> priority should go to implementation simplicity at the expense of completeness or correctness https://xkcd.com/221/ https://xkcd.com/221/

pphysch 5y ago

If "good enough" is "worse" than "perfect", then "worse" is indeed "better". Perfect things never leave the drawing board; good enough things make it into production. Know thy tolerances.