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I'm a bit torn on Fix-it weeks. They are nice but many bugs simply aren't worth fixing. Generally, if they were worth fixing - they would have been fixed. I d

I'm a bit torn on Fix-it weeks. They are nice but many bugs simply aren't worth fixing. Generally, if they were worth fixing - they would have been fixed. I do appreciate though that certain people, often very good detail oriented engineers, find large backlogs incredibly frustrating so I support fix-it weeks even if there isn't clear business ROI.

forgotoldacc 11mo ago
> Generally, if they were worth fixing - they would have been fixed. ??? Basically any major software product accumulates a few issues over time. There's always a "we can fix that later" mindset and it all piles up. MacOS and Windows are both buggy messes. I think I speak for the vast majority of people when I say that I'd prefer they have a fix-it year and just get rid of all the issues instead of trying to rush new features out the door. Maybe rushing out features is good for more money now, but someday there'll be a straw that breaks the camel's back and they'll need to devote a lot of time to fix things or their products will be so bad that people will move to other options.
- foxygen 11mo ago
  Oh boy, I’d trade one(or easily 2/3) major MacOs version for a year worth of bug fixes in a heartbeat.
  - Barbing 11mo ago
    You got it per Gurman: >For iOS 27 and next year’s other major operating system updates — including macOS 27 — the company is focused on improving the software’s quality and underlying performance. -via Bloomberg today
    - baq 11mo ago
      I’ll believe it when I see it, but holy quality Batman I want to believe.
    - Lionga 11mo ago
      how will the poor engineers get promotions if they can not write "Launch feature X" (broken, half baked) on their promotion requests? Nobody ever got promoted for fixing bugs or keeping software useable.
saghm 11mo ago
A greedy algorithm (in the academic sense, although I suppose also in the colloquial sense) isn't the optimal solution to every problem. Sometimes doing the next most valuable thing at a given step can still lead you down a path where you're stuck at a local optimum, and the only way to get somewhere better is to do something that might not be the most valuable thing measured at the current moment only; fixing bugs is the exact type of thing that sometimes has a low initial return but can pay dividends down the line.
baq 11mo ago
ROI is in reduced backlog, reduced duplicate reports and most importantly mitigation of risk of phase transition between good enough and crap. This transition is not linear, it’s a step function when the amount of individually small and mildly annoying at worst issues is big enough to make the experience of using the whole product frustrating. I’m sure you can think of very popular examples of such software.

forgotoldacc 11mo ago

> Generally, if they were worth fixing - they would have been fixed. ??? Basically any major software product accumulates a few issues over time. There's always a "we can fix that later" mindset and it all piles up. MacOS and Windows are both buggy messes. I think I speak for the vast majority of people when I say that I'd prefer they have a fix-it year and just get rid of all the issues instead of trying to rush new features out the door. Maybe rushing out features is good for more money now, but someday there'll be a straw that breaks the camel's back and they'll need to devote a lot of time to fix things or their products will be so bad that people will move to other options.

foxygen 11mo ago
Oh boy, I’d trade one(or easily 2/3) major MacOs version for a year worth of bug fixes in a heartbeat.
- Barbing 11mo ago
  You got it per Gurman: >For iOS 27 and next year’s other major operating system updates — including macOS 27 — the company is focused on improving the software’s quality and underlying performance. -via Bloomberg today
  - baq 11mo ago
    I’ll believe it when I see it, but holy quality Batman I want to believe.
  - Lionga 11mo ago
    how will the poor engineers get promotions if they can not write "Launch feature X" (broken, half baked) on their promotion requests? Nobody ever got promoted for fixing bugs or keeping software useable.

saghm 11mo ago

A greedy algorithm (in the academic sense, although I suppose also in the colloquial sense) isn't the optimal solution to every problem. Sometimes doing the next most valuable thing at a given step can still lead you down a path where you're stuck at a local optimum, and the only way to get somewhere better is to do something that might not be the most valuable thing measured at the current moment only; fixing bugs is the exact type of thing that sometimes has a low initial return but can pay dividends down the line.

baq 11mo ago

ROI is in reduced backlog, reduced duplicate reports and most importantly mitigation of risk of phase transition between good enough and crap. This transition is not linear, it’s a step function when the amount of individually small and mildly annoying at worst issues is big enough to make the experience of using the whole product frustrating. I’m sure you can think of very popular examples of such software.