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I think this is by far the most common outcome for work. A chefs product only lasts an hour at most. Most jobs don’t create anything other than a temporary serv

I think this is by far the most common outcome for work. A chefs product only lasts an hour at most. Most jobs don’t create anything other than a temporary service.

asdfman123 4y ago
That’s because most of the things we need are temporary services, of course. You need dinner. And gas to get to work. And a roof that will last 10 years. Etc.
greenyoda 4y ago
> A chefs product only lasts an hour at most. A chef's recipe, which is also something the chef creates, may last hundreds of years.
- smcl 4y ago
  That's a very romantic view of the life of a chef but I'm afraid that by an overwhelmingly enormous margin the output of a chef is servings of food not century-spanning recipes. The comparison between developer and chef is kind of a stretch but there is a similarity of sorts. It could be argued that the recipes are analogous to the algorithms or patterns that we use day-to-day in software development, and that the servings of dinner are analogous to the applications we build. The algorithms/patterns and recipes might persist for a while, the apps and food have a shorter lifetime. I'm not advocating for throwaway or disposable code (though I'm not above implementing a quick hack, personally) but I don't think we need to think less of ourselves or our profession because we're producing things which currently have a shelf-life of years or decades at most.
- toyg 4y ago
  But tbf, that happens once in a billion recipes. 99% of new recipes are forgotten, often after a week or two.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    Even some of the most famous recipes can change over time. I’m sure that things like McDonald’s burgers are slightly different now. Perhaps the most enduring a chef can do is invent a new technique.
    - prewett 4y ago
      The chicken nugget and McChicken batter are different from when I worked at McDonald's as a kid. Naturally it was better back then...
      - bombcar 4y ago
        IIRC they switch from frying the fries in beef oil to using vegetable oil and the fries have never been quite as good.
    - SAI_Peregrinus 4y ago
      The Youtuber Max Miller's channel "Tasting History with Max Miller" has a number of good examples of old recipes for now-familiar foods. His Semlor episode[1] compares a recipe from 1755 and one from more modern times, and there are substantial changes. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ljm5i5N6WQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ljm5i5N6WQ

I think this is by far the most common outcome for work. A chefs product only lasts an hour at most. Most jobs don’t create anything other than a temporary service.

asdfman123 4y ago

That’s because most of the things we need are temporary services, of course. You need dinner. And gas to get to work. And a roof that will last 10 years. Etc.

greenyoda 4y ago

> A chefs product only lasts an hour at most. A chef's recipe, which is also something the chef creates, may last hundreds of years.

smcl 4y ago
That's a very romantic view of the life of a chef but I'm afraid that by an overwhelmingly enormous margin the output of a chef is servings of food not century-spanning recipes. The comparison between developer and chef is kind of a stretch but there is a similarity of sorts. It could be argued that the recipes are analogous to the algorithms or patterns that we use day-to-day in software development, and that the servings of dinner are analogous to the applications we build. The algorithms/patterns and recipes might persist for a while, the apps and food have a shorter lifetime. I'm not advocating for throwaway or disposable code (though I'm not above implementing a quick hack, personally) but I don't think we need to think less of ourselves or our profession because we're producing things which currently have a shelf-life of years or decades at most.
toyg 4y ago
But tbf, that happens once in a billion recipes. 99% of new recipes are forgotten, often after a week or two.
- bombcar 4y ago
  Even some of the most famous recipes can change over time. I’m sure that things like McDonald’s burgers are slightly different now. Perhaps the most enduring a chef can do is invent a new technique.
  - prewett 4y ago
    The chicken nugget and McChicken batter are different from when I worked at McDonald's as a kid. Naturally it was better back then...
    - bombcar 4y ago
      IIRC they switch from frying the fries in beef oil to using vegetable oil and the fries have never been quite as good.
  - SAI_Peregrinus 4y ago
    The Youtuber Max Miller's channel "Tasting History with Max Miller" has a number of good examples of old recipes for now-familiar foods. His Semlor episode[1] compares a recipe from 1755 and one from more modern times, and there are substantial changes. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ljm5i5N6WQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ljm5i5N6WQ