[rodhan]

Ever since I learned about the Broken Window Theory of urban decay in The Pragmatic Programmer I try to pick up litter and tidy things up where I can. Worst case, someone laughs at you for wasting your time, but even then you're making the world a better place by making people laugh. It's all good :)

[stuxnet79]

Hey - can you expand on what was said about the broken window theory of urban decay in the pragmatic programmer - I'd formulated a similar hypothesis just based on my limited experience collaborating with others in programming projects. I didn't know some academic had come up with a term for it..

[rodhan]

In the Pragmatic Programmer book [1], to help make the point that if you keep your code clean, it is more likely to stay that way, the authors cite the "broken windows" theory [2]. They mention a case where police observed an abandoned car lying untouched on a dark street for days, but once a window was smashed, vandals destroyed the car within hours [3]. I don't know much beyond that, but the theory rings true to me and I try to do my bit to stop it, in code and in real life.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4099.The_Pragmatic_Progr...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory

[3] http://www.artima.com/intv/fixit2.html

[stuxnet79]

Thanks for the links. The theory rings true to me as well. I've coerced sloppy colleagues into writing cleaner code when working on my sections of the project. Conversely I find that I relax my normally high standards when I work on spaghetti code.