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Having used Appfolio for managing a small investment property portfolio, I wish they would spend a little less time analyzing the philos of CSS and a little mo

by thejerz 13y ago

Having used Appfolio for managing a small investment property portfolio, I wish they would spend a little less time analyzing the philos of CSS and a little more more time on high-priority features that customers have been waiting for. There are a million things in life we can spend time on, and the real challenge is to prioritize. Do we a) Get a PhD in CSS, or b) Deliver features that 90% of our paying customers have been asking for? To quote Steve Jobs, "I'm proud of the things we did; I'm even more proud of the things we didn't do." You didn't catch Steve Jobs writing a dissertation on CSS... he had more important things on his mind. As a customer, you can't help but get frustrated when priorities are being so mismanaged and you're paying $4000 a year for it.

markdown 13y ago
Don't crap on the CSS developer for honing his craft and sharing his knowledge. That's like saying the guy who developed the CSS for apple.com shouldn't share his CSS knowledge because because customers want a 5mm thick iPad and Apple hasn't given that to them.
- thejerz 13y ago
  While I appreciate your use of colorful language (i.e., "crap"), your point is not consistent with the author or the article. The author prides himself on looking outside the CSS; he says developers should question the bigger picture into which the CSS fits, like a Rails developer is expected to do. My point is simply that he should extend that line of questioning further and ask whether constructing advanced design patterns for CSS is the best use of time given other stakeholder priorities.
  - markdown 13y ago
    If you hire someone to paint your house, you don't expect him to spend time wondering about whether the house needs another room, or whether the kitchen drawers are deep enough. That's someone else's job. The house painter has single job; paint the house to the very best of his abilities. If you have a problem with the design of the house, take it up with the home-owner. He may or may not decide to accommodate your needs, but in any case, whether or not he decides to do so is irrelevant to the painter. His job is to paint the house.
    - rimantas 13y ago
      That's an extremely poor analogy.
  - davidwoof1 13y ago
    You work as a development project manager, don't you? It takes a certain kind of unique mindset to encounter excellent work somebody has done and use it as an opportunity to bash them because unrelated teams with unrelated skillsets are not churning out the features you want at the rate you want them. How in the world is doing his job the best he can do it somehow not the best use of his time? What exactly is your argument here? Is it that appfolio should not hire such excellent front end developers because their backend is still lacking? Or is it that the front end developers should do worse work to mesh better with what you consider to be the failings of the back end? Even if the css author had anything to do with your complaints, your argument betrays the absolute worst mindset that one can find in software management: the idea that quality work is time-consuming rather than time-saving.
philipwalton 13y ago
@thejerz, article author here. 1) I didn't write this while on the job at Appfolio. I wrote it at home, in my spare time, because I like sharing the things I've learned on the job with the rest of the Web community. Based on the upvotes and overwhelmingly positive responses I've received, I think it's worth my time. 2) My work on the CSS for Appfolio Property Manager has greatly helped the development team (mostly back-enders) and sped up the process. We can release features much faster because of it. I'm sorry they're not the features you want (that's not my call), but if/when we deliver those features they'll get to you quicker because of my work.

by thejerz 13y ago

markdown 13y ago

Don't crap on the CSS developer for honing his craft and sharing his knowledge. That's like saying the guy who developed the CSS for apple.com shouldn't share his CSS knowledge because because customers want a 5mm thick iPad and Apple hasn't given that to them.

thejerz 13y ago
While I appreciate your use of colorful language (i.e., "crap"), your point is not consistent with the author or the article. The author prides himself on looking outside the CSS; he says developers should question the bigger picture into which the CSS fits, like a Rails developer is expected to do. My point is simply that he should extend that line of questioning further and ask whether constructing advanced design patterns for CSS is the best use of time given other stakeholder priorities.
- markdown 13y ago
  If you hire someone to paint your house, you don't expect him to spend time wondering about whether the house needs another room, or whether the kitchen drawers are deep enough. That's someone else's job. The house painter has single job; paint the house to the very best of his abilities. If you have a problem with the design of the house, take it up with the home-owner. He may or may not decide to accommodate your needs, but in any case, whether or not he decides to do so is irrelevant to the painter. His job is to paint the house.
  - rimantas 13y ago
    That's an extremely poor analogy.
- davidwoof1 13y ago
  You work as a development project manager, don't you? It takes a certain kind of unique mindset to encounter excellent work somebody has done and use it as an opportunity to bash them because unrelated teams with unrelated skillsets are not churning out the features you want at the rate you want them. How in the world is doing his job the best he can do it somehow not the best use of his time? What exactly is your argument here? Is it that appfolio should not hire such excellent front end developers because their backend is still lacking? Or is it that the front end developers should do worse work to mesh better with what you consider to be the failings of the back end? Even if the css author had anything to do with your complaints, your argument betrays the absolute worst mindset that one can find in software management: the idea that quality work is time-consuming rather than time-saving.

philipwalton 13y ago

@thejerz, article author here. 1) I didn't write this while on the job at Appfolio. I wrote it at home, in my spare time, because I like sharing the things I've learned on the job with the rest of the Web community. Based on the upvotes and overwhelmingly positive responses I've received, I think it's worth my time. 2) My work on the CSS for Appfolio Property Manager has greatly helped the development team (mostly back-enders) and sped up the process. We can release features much faster because of it. I'm sorry they're not the features you want (that's not my call), but if/when we deliver those features they'll get to you quicker because of my work.