5 ms·

So true. Perfect did indeed become an enemy of good. And good stuff end up being better than perfect. Two related examples I can think of: - China skipped cre

by a_c 4y ago

So true. Perfect did indeed become an enemy of good. And good stuff end up being better than perfect. Two related examples I can think of: - China skipped credit card to use mobile payment directly as credit card is already perfect for the western world. - Apple didn't iterate over blackberry, the then perfect phone. On the other hand, do we count games as software? Japan still produce lots of great game AFAICT, no?

Dalewyn 4y ago
We have to remember that it's the writing, the graphics, the music in Japanese video games that make them great, not necessarily their programming. They are amazing works of art, but unimpressive technical demonstrations.
- Jensson 4y ago
  The movement code in mario games is better than anything in the west though. But you could call that type of code "art" as well, it isn't really a software engineering feat. Maybe you could say that Japan has great software artists, but they aren't that great at software engineering.
  - yurishimo 4y ago
    Can you expound upon this? I've not heard this talking point before. I do know Nintendo has a history of pushing the technical limits of their own hardware, but I'd be interested to read more about some specifics.
    - djmips 4y ago
      When you only care about how something looks and plays but care nothing about how it happens under the hood you can end up with some really ugly code. I am not claiming this doesn't happen in the west either but in general when I got a glimpse of Japanese game code it was 'ugly' compared to western even if it technically was great (fun, performant etc)
      - astrange 4y ago
        Mario64 and earlier's source code have all leaked online, so you could go look at it if you want.
- djmips 4y ago
  I disagree, they were often impressive technically but what I feel was at a great cost. They had some great individual programmers but they did not seem to develop technologies that could be shared and amplify and did not value systems or computer science or sharing. Contrast that to say a John Carmack who lifted an entire industry in the west with his thoughtful engineering and complete openness (all ID code was shared and formed the backbone of a lot of other game engines even today). Who is that Japanese Carmack? They had great programmers and great tech but it was hard to scale and they did fall behind. I sense a comeback now. They have swallowed their pride and are using Unreal Engine for example. That's a big step.
  - alfalfasprout 4y ago
    Maybe Kazushige Goto? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazushige_Goto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazushige_Goto) His optimizations for linear algebra computations on commodity hardware are widely, widely used even to this day.
oriolid 4y ago
I would call it "good enough" rather than perfect. The usual meaning for "perfect is the enemy of good" I've heard is the danger of spending forever to perfect something instead of releasing and learning from experience.

by a_c 4y ago

Dalewyn 4y ago

We have to remember that it's the writing, the graphics, the music in Japanese video games that make them great, not necessarily their programming. They are amazing works of art, but unimpressive technical demonstrations.

Jensson 4y ago
The movement code in mario games is better than anything in the west though. But you could call that type of code "art" as well, it isn't really a software engineering feat. Maybe you could say that Japan has great software artists, but they aren't that great at software engineering.
- yurishimo 4y ago
  Can you expound upon this? I've not heard this talking point before. I do know Nintendo has a history of pushing the technical limits of their own hardware, but I'd be interested to read more about some specifics.
  - djmips 4y ago
    When you only care about how something looks and plays but care nothing about how it happens under the hood you can end up with some really ugly code. I am not claiming this doesn't happen in the west either but in general when I got a glimpse of Japanese game code it was 'ugly' compared to western even if it technically was great (fun, performant etc)
    - astrange 4y ago
      Mario64 and earlier's source code have all leaked online, so you could go look at it if you want.
djmips 4y ago
I disagree, they were often impressive technically but what I feel was at a great cost. They had some great individual programmers but they did not seem to develop technologies that could be shared and amplify and did not value systems or computer science or sharing. Contrast that to say a John Carmack who lifted an entire industry in the west with his thoughtful engineering and complete openness (all ID code was shared and formed the backbone of a lot of other game engines even today). Who is that Japanese Carmack? They had great programmers and great tech but it was hard to scale and they did fall behind. I sense a comeback now. They have swallowed their pride and are using Unreal Engine for example. That's a big step.
- alfalfasprout 4y ago
  Maybe Kazushige Goto? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazushige_Goto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazushige_Goto) His optimizations for linear algebra computations on commodity hardware are widely, widely used even to this day.

oriolid 4y ago

I would call it "good enough" rather than perfect. The usual meaning for "perfect is the enemy of good" I've heard is the danger of spending forever to perfect something instead of releasing and learning from experience.