How To Guarantee That Your Software Will Suck | Hacker News Reader

How To Guarantee That Your Software Will Suck

codethinked.com

38 pointsjohns10 comments

It's pretty sad, but I've worked on teams where management followed every single one of these rules.

Hell, this was the 10 commandments at every job I've had...

Same here. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when i read this.

So how did you get out? I'm six months out of school, and already struggling with burnout centered around the issues in this article.

I've decided that I will not accept a future job unless I can use a non-Windows OS, and I have extremely flexible time accounting. I'm not sure how reasonable that is, but it has to be out there, right?

I read this and it was ok, but when I read the title, I thought: I already know how to make my software suck. Why would I need any more tips?

Really, in many ways, that wasn't too original of an essay, but it was very well written, and it was something that needed to be said.

Fun little writeup, but I think he forgot a few:

- use two $50K programmers instead of one $100K programmer

- have managers who have never programmed

- begin programming before systems analysis has adequately defined the "big fat what"

- change requirements daily

- don't ask your users what they want

- don't ask your users for feedback on what you've done

- don't test

- write something really cool that no one wants

- use Microsoft products

"Refuse to buy them more than one monitor". Interestingly enough I am a marketing/sales/everything else guy and I found that having two monitors has made my work a lot easier. I am thinking now why it took me so long to get the second screen.

I can't understand why some people (those who are in the position to make the decisions on what hardware you get) don't understand that more pixels make you more productive. Constantly flipping between windows/views to get at the information you need just slows you down.

That's one of the problems where I work. I don't understand what would make someone think that a single 1280x1024 monitor is good enough software development. My requests for a 30" or at least a 24" have not been met yet. I'm strongly considering buying my own monitor.

They also want to cheap out on hardware. It seems like they are only interested in buying $300-400 machines, which makes it less likely that my request for a Mac will be met.

"You've probably heard it a thousand times, but the best code is the code that you don't have to write."

I think this guy is a chump. Writing things yourself is a luxury. If you have the time to spend on writing it yourself, you have more of a chance understand what is going on. Also some software is still written for a specific task (as in, not to be everything to everyone). If this is the case, and you have the luxury to write everything yourself you will know how your software works, AND you can optimize for a specific task, rather than being general enough to be used elsewhere.

It is also my opinion that it is good to know as much as possible about what you work with. So to take on libraries just so you can skimp out makes you a tad ignorant.

"Refuse to buy them more than one monitor."

I have coded entire projects on an Everex Cloudbook, with a single 7" screen. If lack of dual monitors kills your productivity then you probably suck at coding. ;)

"Buy cheap hardware."

Again, entire projects, Cloudbook, $300. This guy is just a winy chump haha!

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