3 ms·
In my experience, this is all to often the truth: "There is also the problem that programmers tend to be somewhat faddish. It is not uncommon for them to recom
by F_J_H 17y ago
In my experience, this is all to often the truth:
"There is also the problem that programmers tend to be somewhat faddish. It is not uncommon for them to recommend a solution that is technically fashionable, not necessarily what's practical. An elegant solution to the wrong problem solves nothing. It is important for programmers to learn to justify their technical recommendations from a business perspective. Failure to do so will inevitably result in a costly decision."
- iigs 17y agoWithin reason I agree, but in large part "technology fads" are actually evolution. The mood ring was a fad. Nobody knew what it was, then it happened, then it went away again and everyone was fine. With technology that's largely not the case. What appear to be fads end up being evolutionary dead ends. [Possible HN heresy ahead] I'd put LISP business applicaiton development into this category. Prior to the AI craze, systems were developed in low level programming languages or mainframe business languages. Then LISP happened, but when the AI winter happened, did people go back to C/ASM/{the IBM languages}? No! C++, and later Java happened. For business Java will eventually superseded, but it's foolhardy to think people will regress to the languages of yesteryear -- time is marching forward. Being too stodgy or unwilling to invest in maintaining the business applications in current mainstream languages can put you in a precarious support situation in a relatively short (say a decade) time when people that are willing to do work in your system language are very expensive and no longer the best people in the industry. Obviously it's important to see through technology fads but starting from a position of skepticism may not play as well as it seems at first blush.
- omouse 17y agoIt's the fault of businesspeople that programmers are faddish. They're the ones selling crap to one another that they force their programmers to use. They use cheap gimmicks and marketing campaigns to move more units at the expense of quality software.
- mclin 17y agoCDD = Career Driven Development Choosing technologies/fads for a project based on what will look best on your resume.
- gaius 17y agoIt's exactly the opposite. Fads are forced on programmers by managers who know nothing more than they read about them in a vendor sponsored article in "CIO Monthly" magazine they read at the airport.
- F_J_H 17y agoYes, always and every time, I'm sure! ;-)
- microtherion 17y agoThere's something to that, but for a Management Consultant like Bryce to accuse another profession of faddishness is rather rich.