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Why isn't more software just... made good? I understand that often it's because the devs are underpaid, but is that the case everytime this happens? I get the i

Why isn't more software just... made good? I understand that often it's because the devs are underpaid, but is that the case everytime this happens? I get the impression (from living in this world and using a lot of software) that there are plenty of devs out there who just don't care enough about their craft to do good work, and that makes me very sad.

codeulike 3y ago
Why isn't more software just... made good? Because you can make almost as much money making it badly as you can making it properly. Especially in 1998. And especially with huge government contracts. In fact with huge government contracts in the 1990s you could make more money doing it badly than you could doing it properly. Because if you quoted the price it would have taken to do it properly, the government would buy it from your competitor who was quoting the price to do it badly. Eventually crap project goes live once government has paid 4x the original estimate for it (because its better for everyone involved to pretend its not crap) and the company goes on to use that 'success' to bid for their next project.
cromulent 3y ago
Such a good question. Don't blame the developers too quickly. In most industries you need to actually make or do good stuff to have a good career. In the software industry you can (badly) manage failed projects, or lead the development of poor software products, or run internal fiefdoms that make the development of good software harder, and still have a stellar career.
Verdex 3y ago
The rich young ruler approached Jesus and asked him what he had to do in order to inherit eternal life. And in a perplexing response Jesus begins to answer him. "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone." Software is neither good nor bad. It's run in a box of sand, and it's a minor miracle that humanity has found a way to make a box of sand do anything at all, let alone the digital empire that we have built. Good software isn't even describable. "Well, it should be correct." Okay, well, if good software is correct software, then why didn't you use that word to begin with? But what do you mean by 'correct'? Any definition you give will have edge cases that you didn't think of. Your resolutions will self contradict. And when the whole thing is deployed we'll discover that the assumptions of what correct means do not exist in physical reality; our house of cards painstakingly constructed with insane attention to detail collapses into ash. Jesus then goes onto to tell the rich young ruler to follow the second half of the 10 commandments. ~Yeah, I've been doing that since forever.~ One thing he lacked, though. He was to sell all his possessions and follow Jesus. This is not a rebuke. Do not stop asking for good software. It should be your demand; it is what we all deserve. But good software isn't a checklist of rules. It is not a simple thing to ask for. It is a lifelong journey where the destination is to get further than those who have come before. Good software is a limit as our striving tends to infinity.
ascorbic 3y ago
For large government contracts there's no incentive to make it good, and huge numbers of countervailing pressures that make it bad. Once it's built, it's already been paid for.

codeulike 3y ago

Why isn't more software just... made good? Because you can make almost as much money making it badly as you can making it properly. Especially in 1998. And especially with huge government contracts. In fact with huge government contracts in the 1990s you could make more money doing it badly than you could doing it properly. Because if you quoted the price it would have taken to do it properly, the government would buy it from your competitor who was quoting the price to do it badly. Eventually crap project goes live once government has paid 4x the original estimate for it (because its better for everyone involved to pretend its not crap) and the company goes on to use that 'success' to bid for their next project.

cromulent 3y ago

Such a good question. Don't blame the developers too quickly. In most industries you need to actually make or do good stuff to have a good career. In the software industry you can (badly) manage failed projects, or lead the development of poor software products, or run internal fiefdoms that make the development of good software harder, and still have a stellar career.

Verdex 3y ago

The rich young ruler approached Jesus and asked him what he had to do in order to inherit eternal life. And in a perplexing response Jesus begins to answer him. "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone." Software is neither good nor bad. It's run in a box of sand, and it's a minor miracle that humanity has found a way to make a box of sand do anything at all, let alone the digital empire that we have built. Good software isn't even describable. "Well, it should be correct." Okay, well, if good software is correct software, then why didn't you use that word to begin with? But what do you mean by 'correct'? Any definition you give will have edge cases that you didn't think of. Your resolutions will self contradict. And when the whole thing is deployed we'll discover that the assumptions of what correct means do not exist in physical reality; our house of cards painstakingly constructed with insane attention to detail collapses into ash. Jesus then goes onto to tell the rich young ruler to follow the second half of the 10 commandments. ~Yeah, I've been doing that since forever.~ One thing he lacked, though. He was to sell all his possessions and follow Jesus. This is not a rebuke. Do not stop asking for good software. It should be your demand; it is what we all deserve. But good software isn't a checklist of rules. It is not a simple thing to ask for. It is a lifelong journey where the destination is to get further than those who have come before. Good software is a limit as our striving tends to infinity.

ascorbic 3y ago

For large government contracts there's no incentive to make it good, and huge numbers of countervailing pressures that make it bad. Once it's built, it's already been paid for.