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by lj3 3597 days ago
It took me years to realize the reason programmers do this is because the tools that "seem cool" make their lives easier at the expense of everything else. This is where the popular traits of "laziness and hubris" become a liability instead of an asset.

More programmers need to embrace the suck.
1 comments
CaptSpify 3597 days ago
> tools that "seem cool" make their lives easier at the expense of everything else.

I'd argue the opposite. Instead of spending time reflecting on how cool and useful their code is, or hardening it up, devs spend too much time reinventing the wheel. All this work to learn the next new fad is killing productivity.

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lj3 3597 days ago
Easier might not be the right word. 'tools that allow them to be lazier' might be more accurate. Gluing together pieces somebody else wrote and trying to get them all to work with as little effort as possible and are surprised when it doesn't work well.

> devs spend too much time reinventing the wheel

I'd argue the opposite. They spend too much time not reinventing the wheel. They strap factory made bicycle wheels onto a car and are surprised when the wheels break. They could benefit from spending more time trying to make a better wheel.

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TeMPOraL 3597 days ago
Or learn about better wheels designed by smart people back in the 60s and 70s, when no one had the capability to just keep sticking wheels onto cars to see what works - so they had to rely on thinking and solid engineering practices instead.
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lj3 3597 days ago
Precisely why I've started buying technical books from ages past. I'm working my way through Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs by Niklaus Wirth, Constructing user interfaces with statecharts by Ian Horrocks and Practical UML Statecharts in C/C++, Event-Driven Programming for Embedded Systems. The last one has been especially enlightening.

Do you have any suggestions for which 'better wheels' people should be looking at?

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TeMPOraL 3597 days ago
SICP is a classic I can highly recommend. It made me aware of just how much the "new, smart" approaches to organizing code that people like to attribute to their favourite programming model (like "OOP is best because classes and inheritance means modularity") are actually rehashing of obvious and general ideas known very well in the past.

I generally like reading on anything Lisp-related, as this family of languages is still pretty much direct heritage of the golden ages.

The stuff done by Alan Kay, et al. over at PARC is also quite insightful.

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