[newsreader]

After reading the post by Hillel Wayne I decided to read Uncle Bob's article that is mentioned in the post (http://blog.cleancoder.com/uncle-bob/2017/10/04/CodeIsNotThe...). After reading both posts, and after reading most of the comments on this thread, I have to admit that my inclination is in favor of Uncle Bob. I agree with most of the points Uncle Bob made in his blog post.

Tools are not the answer. TDD is not the answer. Agile is not the answer. More programming languages are not the answer. There is no silver bullet. For me the answer is to do the best I can, with the tools I have.

Never stop learning, always strive to improve my skills. And yes, it takes discipline.

[mbizzle88]

I disagree. Neither of them is saying anything is "the answer". They are merely putting emphasis on different things.

From that perspective, I would say that Uncle Bob is more wrong. It doesn't make sense to emphasise discipline before best practices. Discipline is about following through on things and avoiding short cuts. That means in order to have discipline, you first have to have a procedure you are meant to follow in the first place.

Additionally, Uncle Bob seems to look at things from the perspective: "If you're undisciplined, better tools can't make up for that." Sure.

But, IMO, Hillel's perspective is a lot more useful: "If you are disciplined, better tools will help you do better work."

[newsreader]

I agree that neither of them is saying anything is "the answer". I read my comment and don't believe I implied it either. What I'm stating is my opinion: For me the answer is to do the best I can, with the tools I have.

Never stop learning, always strive to improve my skills. And yes, it takes discipline.