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"Imagine a baker who was more concerned with building ovens than baking bread." I'd imagine that at some point, it's hard to make enough bread without consider

"Imagine a baker who was more concerned with building ovens than baking bread." I'd imagine that at some point, it's hard to make enough bread without considering the ovens.

couchand 13y ago
Good point. The metaphor is much stronger than the grandparent realized: a great baker should spend some time to find the best oven, install it in their bakery, then (hopefully) never think about ovens again.
- jeffbr13 13y ago
  > then (hopefully) never think about ovens again. If "baker" denotes an individual whose job is to bake bread in a small bakery, then perhaps. But we're more like industrial chefs, hired to "make" bread at scale (e.g. for Tesco or Walmart). As a software engineer, our roles may be much more about combining, improving, or making our own ingredients, machinery, and processes. Then, when it comes to baking the bread, we're able to produce much more with less effort, or even hand off the final production to others.
nashequilibrium 13y ago
yes, but then you hire a specialist at building ovens and tailor it to your bread.
blhack 13y ago
You're right. But my point is that sometimes people get caught into pre-mature optimization. The baker analogy, within the context of what I'm saying, is about a baker who never bakes any bread, because they spend all of their time iterating on ovens, and not bread. Having some super fancy bread-making-machine is totally vital...eventually, or if you're doing something very cutting-edge, or out of the ordinary. But not when you're writing a personal blog.
- scarecrowbob 13y ago
  Fair enough points; there is indeed a difference between being more concerned about the ovens than the bread and all. That said, I have worked with/for a lot of bakers who have literally given no time thinking about the oven (I've done a lot of cheap PHP freelancing), and occasionally ruminate on finding a better oven and the choice that led to my current situation in the kitchen. There are a fair number of folks out there who bake plenty of bread, but who could do so in more sanitary conditions with easier to reproduce recipes if they were open to some different methods. I agree that a personal blog is probably not the right point for that kind of methodology, but there are also a lot folks who need to learn the difference between yeast and random fungii that they found by googling "free wordpress themes".

"Imagine a baker who was more concerned with building ovens than baking bread." I'd imagine that at some point, it's hard to make enough bread without considering the ovens.

couchand 13y ago

Good point. The metaphor is much stronger than the grandparent realized: a great baker should spend some time to find the best oven, install it in their bakery, then (hopefully) never think about ovens again.

jeffbr13 13y ago
> then (hopefully) never think about ovens again. If "baker" denotes an individual whose job is to bake bread in a small bakery, then perhaps. But we're more like industrial chefs, hired to "make" bread at scale (e.g. for Tesco or Walmart). As a software engineer, our roles may be much more about combining, improving, or making our own ingredients, machinery, and processes. Then, when it comes to baking the bread, we're able to produce much more with less effort, or even hand off the final production to others.

nashequilibrium 13y ago

yes, but then you hire a specialist at building ovens and tailor it to your bread.

blhack 13y ago

You're right. But my point is that sometimes people get caught into pre-mature optimization. The baker analogy, within the context of what I'm saying, is about a baker who never bakes any bread, because they spend all of their time iterating on ovens, and not bread. Having some super fancy bread-making-machine is totally vital...eventually, or if you're doing something very cutting-edge, or out of the ordinary. But not when you're writing a personal blog.

scarecrowbob 13y ago
Fair enough points; there is indeed a difference between being more concerned about the ovens than the bread and all. That said, I have worked with/for a lot of bakers who have literally given no time thinking about the oven (I've done a lot of cheap PHP freelancing), and occasionally ruminate on finding a better oven and the choice that led to my current situation in the kitchen. There are a fair number of folks out there who bake plenty of bread, but who could do so in more sanitary conditions with easier to reproduce recipes if they were open to some different methods. I agree that a personal blog is probably not the right point for that kind of methodology, but there are also a lot folks who need to learn the difference between yeast and random fungii that they found by googling "free wordpress themes".