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It's like the author realized he didn't have much to say, so he just upped the font size. It's not a novel observation that people improve as they go on. Stran

It's like the author realized he didn't have much to say, so he just upped the font size. It's not a novel observation that people improve as they go on. Strange that the community considers this to be a front page article.

sukuriant 13y ago
The point isn't that people improve as you go. The point is that if you're like this author (and many people, including myself at times) are, then when you start working on something, you obsess over the exact, perfect, super-over-engineered version of a something; and you'll rehash that inconsequential something while many prior versions would have been just fine. Instead, when you've gotten to X ability level, go ahead and make something at X ability level, don't let learning about a new, better way of doing that something stop you from doing it. There was a saying that I'm going to butcher here from PHP: "While many people obsess over the little details that don't matter and quibble over language wars, the person that knows PHP just gets things done." This article is in that similar vein where it's more important to ship than to quibble about the things that don't matter that much.
- btilly 13y ago
  Instead, when you've gotten to X ability level, go ahead and make something at X ability level, don't let learning about a new, better way of doing that something stop you from doing it. There is a time that this is good advice, and a time that it is bad advice. It is good when it helps you get over analysis paralysis. It is bad when it helps people justify their turning the opportunity to gain 15 years of experience into having gained one year of experience, 15 times. There was a saying that I'm going to butcher here from PHP: "While many people obsess over the little details that don't matter and quibble over language wars, the person that knows PHP just gets things done." Being snarky, PHP stands as an example of where you should take a step back, and learn better ways to do it.
  - sukuriant 13y ago
    It is good when it helps you get over analysis paralysis. It is bad when it helps people justify their turning the opportunity to gain 15 years of experience into having gained one year of experience, 15 times. Absolutely. I agree 100%. It should definitely be a case-by-case basis.
logn 13y ago
This has bugged me too. But I've come to accept these as just over-sized tweets, which helps. I sort of see these as a thread-starter for a discussion here, rather than an article you'll google for 5 years later to show someone.
avenger123 13y ago
I would tend to agree with you on this. I was expecting something with more insight. It's been my experience that for a lot of software, the bad code stays bad code, especially if its being written by people who really don't care about the craft. I guess we have a lot of perfectionist's on HN who might salivate over every variable or function name (I say this in jest, as I used to be guilty of this).

sukuriant 13y ago

The point isn't that people improve as you go. The point is that if you're like this author (and many people, including myself at times) are, then when you start working on something, you obsess over the exact, perfect, super-over-engineered version of a something; and you'll rehash that inconsequential something while many prior versions would have been just fine. Instead, when you've gotten to X ability level, go ahead and make something at X ability level, don't let learning about a new, better way of doing that something stop you from doing it. There was a saying that I'm going to butcher here from PHP: "While many people obsess over the little details that don't matter and quibble over language wars, the person that knows PHP just gets things done." This article is in that similar vein where it's more important to ship than to quibble about the things that don't matter that much.

btilly 13y ago
Instead, when you've gotten to X ability level, go ahead and make something at X ability level, don't let learning about a new, better way of doing that something stop you from doing it. There is a time that this is good advice, and a time that it is bad advice. It is good when it helps you get over analysis paralysis. It is bad when it helps people justify their turning the opportunity to gain 15 years of experience into having gained one year of experience, 15 times. There was a saying that I'm going to butcher here from PHP: "While many people obsess over the little details that don't matter and quibble over language wars, the person that knows PHP just gets things done." Being snarky, PHP stands as an example of where you should take a step back, and learn better ways to do it.
- sukuriant 13y ago
  It is good when it helps you get over analysis paralysis. It is bad when it helps people justify their turning the opportunity to gain 15 years of experience into having gained one year of experience, 15 times. Absolutely. I agree 100%. It should definitely be a case-by-case basis.

logn 13y ago

This has bugged me too. But I've come to accept these as just over-sized tweets, which helps. I sort of see these as a thread-starter for a discussion here, rather than an article you'll google for 5 years later to show someone.

avenger123 13y ago

I would tend to agree with you on this. I was expecting something with more insight. It's been my experience that for a lot of software, the bad code stays bad code, especially if its being written by people who really don't care about the craft. I guess we have a lot of perfectionist's on HN who might salivate over every variable or function name (I say this in jest, as I used to be guilty of this).