What Killed Smalltalk: My Balls | Hacker News Reader

What Killed Smalltalk: My Balls

gilesbowkett.blogspot.com

83 pointssant0sk113 comments

On professionalism: Giles and Martin are using different definitions of professionalism. Martin was explicit about his definition: adherence to quality standards, even under external pressure. Giles uses that to rant about suits, which is completely beside the point.

Of course programming doesn't need more "professionalism" in the sense of suits and firm handshakes. It does need more professionalism in the sense of "I'm sorry Mr Sales Guy, but your deadline is unrealistic. Let's discuss the features we can cut to make that deadline, or the schedule revisions that we need to complete the project."

Nice rant. Haven't seen the presentation so I can't comment on that. But it sure is a nice rant.

Why can't you say "nice article"? Why use the perjorative term "rant"?

If you disagree with something in it, just say so.

The article is a puerile rant; it borders on incoherent, lacks any rational supporting argument, and does little to convince the reader besides advancing emotional declarations.

"The only question is, how big a dick move was it?"

"It's only a good thing for people who fuck up a lot."

Oh well; I liked it, especially the part about "professionalism". There is a place in the dialogue for puerile rants. Some topics deserve nothing else.

I don't normally like Giles' stuff much, but I read this one and kept thinking to myself; "yep. Yep. Yeah, he's right there. Yep."

Nice one, Mr. Bowkett.

It's amusing to see that his prose style is between Atwood and Zed Shaw.

It'd be interesting to study the cross-pollination between bloggers and to chart that.

This is a reaction to this presentation: http://blip.tv/file/2089545

Consultants need to make a living somehow, just waiting for the next fad to come along. The most sane approach to TDD is by Cedric Beust (author of TestNG: http://beust.com/weblog/).

Seems to have alot of quotes and intention taken out way of context. I think Uncle Bob would agree with alot of the points you made had you not redefined and distorted what he said.

To take an easy example: "A high standard of professional ethics, behaviour and work activities while carrying out one's profession" is not the same thing as acting like Henry Rollins.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professionalism

That was a joke.

Actually, I'd argue that quote is a pretty good description of Henry Rollins's behavior and work ethic. Of course, if you also consider that he started his publishing company while living and working in a tool shed, it might be hard to call him overly professional. And yeah, I get that the Rollins reference is a joke. But I'm a fan of Old Man Hank; I couldn't help but chime in here.

To be honest this rant didn't really inspire me much one way or the other, but the suck.com linkage is definitely worth the read.

The presentation was great... this reaction, not so much. I appreciate the link to the presentation though!

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