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This article is bad, actually. The analogy does not illuminate anything about software development. It's just a semi-interesting bit of scifi writing with a con

This article is bad, actually. The analogy does not illuminate anything about software development. It's just a semi-interesting bit of scifi writing with a contrived connection to software development, but it doesn't contain any information or advice. If you enjoy the scifi scenario, fine, but it doesn't make any sense for it to be posted to Hacker News because it is not hacker news, it's a scifi story with a bad analogy tacked on the end.

gallerdude 4y ago
I think the fundamental message is very relevant to software development: question everything. It’s really easy to get so caught up in the layers of abstraction, that we forget that we’re making software for people. A chef who painstakingly concerned himself with where he sourced his ingredients may or may not be a good chef. But the chef who concerned herself deeply with the taste of the meal would probably be a good one. Yet, when we talk about software development, 90% of what we talk about is stack, and 10% is what we built. I’m not super successful or anything, but I imagine the founders who focus on the 10% are the better ones.
thoughtsimple 4y ago
I think you are missing the date it was written. The article is almost 9 years old. That is older than even most stack overflow answers. The software world has changed quite a bit in the last 10 years. You are less likely to find yourself in an environment where this analogy was more appropriate (thank the gods). But as someone who has worked in the software industry for 30+ years, this was more accurate than you think.
- psteitz 4y ago
  +1 And even today, regardless of software stack, tooling, etc the problem of silo-ed development and limited understanding of the big picture in large systems is still very much alive. Getting shared understanding of the ideas embodied in complex systems with lots of little teams is still a challenge and always will be.

gallerdude 4y ago

I think the fundamental message is very relevant to software development: question everything. It’s really easy to get so caught up in the layers of abstraction, that we forget that we’re making software for people. A chef who painstakingly concerned himself with where he sourced his ingredients may or may not be a good chef. But the chef who concerned herself deeply with the taste of the meal would probably be a good one. Yet, when we talk about software development, 90% of what we talk about is stack, and 10% is what we built. I’m not super successful or anything, but I imagine the founders who focus on the 10% are the better ones.

thoughtsimple 4y ago

I think you are missing the date it was written. The article is almost 9 years old. That is older than even most stack overflow answers. The software world has changed quite a bit in the last 10 years. You are less likely to find yourself in an environment where this analogy was more appropriate (thank the gods). But as someone who has worked in the software industry for 30+ years, this was more accurate than you think.

psteitz 4y ago
+1 And even today, regardless of software stack, tooling, etc the problem of silo-ed development and limited understanding of the big picture in large systems is still very much alive. Getting shared understanding of the ideas embodied in complex systems with lots of little teams is still a challenge and always will be.