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I too have met many developers who have developed the mindset that good code is impossible. That is really sad. Imagine a carpenter that says straight cuts are

by atoav 3y ago

I too have met many developers who have developed the mindset that good code is impossible. That is really sad. Imagine a carpenter that says straight cuts aren't possible, just because they never maintained their tools and the last 10 cuts came out wrong. Of course good code is possible. But not every person is going to write it and it is not going to happen under all possible circumstances and in all given project structures. Our job as professional software people is to be able to judge how to create the circumstances and the time frames under which good code can be written — and to say No to projects that cannot be written by us and our team.

matjazmuhic 3y ago
Seems like a duplicate to which my reply is here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36811381#36811433 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36811381#36811433
gkhartman 3y ago
"Imagine a carpenter that says straight cuts aren't possible, just because they never maintained their tools and the last 10 cuts came out wrong." Anyone who's worked on a construction site would agree that this is not too far from reality. I agree, it's quite sad, but that sentiment usually comes with burnout from too many quick deadlines and vast piles of tech debt.
- atoav 3y ago
  > but that sentiment usually comes with burnout from too many quick deadlines and vast piles of tech debt. That would be my question. We are not talking about people saying that within their context good code is not possible, we are talking about people who say good code is not possible, period. Maybe burnout has to do with it, maybe also depression. But I even if I was stuck in a job that made me churn put half broken code all day I'd still remember my hobby projects in which I experienced myself that perfectly fine code can be written by a single determined person — and quite frankly: it doesn't even have ro take that much longer, it just has to be a trusted, concentrated low pressure environment.

by atoav 3y ago

matjazmuhic 3y ago

Seems like a duplicate to which my reply is here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36811381#36811433 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36811381#36811433

gkhartman 3y ago

"Imagine a carpenter that says straight cuts aren't possible, just because they never maintained their tools and the last 10 cuts came out wrong." Anyone who's worked on a construction site would agree that this is not too far from reality. I agree, it's quite sad, but that sentiment usually comes with burnout from too many quick deadlines and vast piles of tech debt.

atoav 3y ago
> but that sentiment usually comes with burnout from too many quick deadlines and vast piles of tech debt. That would be my question. We are not talking about people saying that within their context good code is not possible, we are talking about people who say good code is not possible, period. Maybe burnout has to do with it, maybe also depression. But I even if I was stuck in a job that made me churn put half broken code all day I'd still remember my hobby projects in which I experienced myself that perfectly fine code can be written by a single determined person — and quite frankly: it doesn't even have ro take that much longer, it just has to be a trusted, concentrated low pressure environment.