How Software Companies Die

zoion.com

6 points·gertjanzwartjes··3 comments

I can't count the number of articles like this that I have read. I reject the idea that these old anti-social trolls are the only ones capable of sustaining a company. That all young hungry people are bad and we noble veterans are constantly getting the short end of the stick.

Furthermore the article is clearly biased and relies on purely anecdotal evidence. Perhaps it's the authors inability to work with others and cope with younger coworkers success which is the problem.

The article is not about young vs old, or veterans vs beginners. It's about trying to control a creative process; programming is (for a big part) inventing new things, using existing components in a new way. Such creative work cannot easily be planned and controlled the same way as building a product on a production line for example. The tone might be a bit cynical, I agree, and there's much written about it, though it's an interesting perspective.

I agree that part of it is about trying to control a creative process but when it breaks down the author totally wipes his hands clean of any responsibility. Acting like "sabotaging the product" is an acceptable way to behave.

No, its the only way he could imagine someone behaving and its all the fault of the "Lousy young programmer" and the "Marketing types" with their "power neckties". The fact off the matter is that people who cannot adapt to change in a company are a poison and the biggest mistake that management made, was that they weren't able to replace him with more stable and mature (albeit slightly less creative) professional sooner.

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