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"... Steve Jobs's famous maxim "artists ship" works both ways. Artists aren't merely capable of shipping. They insist on it. So if you don't let people ship, yo

"... Steve Jobs's famous maxim "artists ship" works both ways. Artists aren't merely capable of shipping. They insist on it. So if you don't let people ship, you won't have any artists ..." Steve Yegge has had the unenviable luck of working on 3 products all of which have not shipped (cited as business reasons) yet he still works for Google ~ http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2008/10/podcast-25/ http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2008/10/podcast-25/ So it seems there is something else going on that keeps programmers on board. Is it money, having the freedom to talking about it the process? I don't know.

tdavis 18y ago
I spent 3 months at the end of recent deployment furiously developing an (arguably) game-changing app for the Army's secret intranet. I knew in advance it wouldn't actually get deployed, despite everyone up to the Task Force Commander loving it and touting its importance. The day came when it was "done" (of course I had become attached and there were a million things I wanted to add) and ready to be deployed... then the red tape tied it up until it was time for us to go. As is generally the case, our replacements weren't planning to do things our way (the country has gotten much worse since we left, imagine that) so the project was basically sunk. I worked on it because I love programming and trying new things. Everything I was doing at the time was new to me so it was fun, engaging, and a learning experience. Plus, it beat the hell out of anything else I could have been doing in that wasteland ;)
- bootload 18y ago
  "... I worked on it because I love programming and trying new things. Everything I was doing at the time was new to me so it was fun, engaging, and a learning experience. Plus, it beat the hell out of anything else I could have been doing in that wasteland ;) ..." Good explanation. I put it as a question as I'm wasn't conclusively sure why people would sign on to assignments that have a probability of failure. But I've since found that smart organisations allow pursuit of training and learning as a reason to keep staff and motivation. I figure the USF know a thing or 2 about motivation. Hope your putting the lessons you learned into some hack your working on :)

tdavis 18y ago

I spent 3 months at the end of recent deployment furiously developing an (arguably) game-changing app for the Army's secret intranet. I knew in advance it wouldn't actually get deployed, despite everyone up to the Task Force Commander loving it and touting its importance. The day came when it was "done" (of course I had become attached and there were a million things I wanted to add) and ready to be deployed... then the red tape tied it up until it was time for us to go. As is generally the case, our replacements weren't planning to do things our way (the country has gotten much worse since we left, imagine that) so the project was basically sunk. I worked on it because I love programming and trying new things. Everything I was doing at the time was new to me so it was fun, engaging, and a learning experience. Plus, it beat the hell out of anything else I could have been doing in that wasteland ;)

bootload 18y ago
"... I worked on it because I love programming and trying new things. Everything I was doing at the time was new to me so it was fun, engaging, and a learning experience. Plus, it beat the hell out of anything else I could have been doing in that wasteland ;) ..." Good explanation. I put it as a question as I'm wasn't conclusively sure why people would sign on to assignments that have a probability of failure. But I've since found that smart organisations allow pursuit of training and learning as a reason to keep staff and motivation. I figure the USF know a thing or 2 about motivation. Hope your putting the lessons you learned into some hack your working on :)