| NOTE: This is tongue-in-cheek (for the most part). However, I cannot help but feel that articles like this are a subtle form of social manipulation; especially for younger, less experienced programmers. From the article: * The software is not the purpose Translation: your craft, how you do it, and why are not important. Going meta for your profession is not valued and if people see you doing it, you're in trouble. Let the guilt wash over you, heathen! * Understand the problem Translation: going meta (refactoring, egads!) is wrong. We're watching you and if you do this, you're in trouble. If you aren't feeling guilty yet, now is the appropriate time. In addition, you must feel shame for your irresponsibility! * Perfect is the enemy of good enough Translation: going meta -- unless it is to realize a clever kludge -- means you are a perfectionist. You're wrong! We're watching you and if you do this, you're in trouble. You're one of those prima donna programmers, aren't you? We have no need for you! * Choose your battles Translation: Everyone starts off doing everything by hand, so -- you know -- the whole notion of writing software in the first place is kind of a Faustian Bargain. Hey, why did we hire you anyway? It's clear you're one of those whinging, prima donna, basement dwelling, perfectionist, programmer A-type people. I see we need more money in the "team building" budget. You're fired. Now is the appropriate time to feel like a loser, because you are! * The best cod (sic) you can write, is no code at all Translation: We can't even be bothered to spell "code" properly, which shows you how important it is to us. Truthfully, if there were a magic product we could buy that does what you do -- but better! -- we would. Don't you dare start thinking about weighing cost/benefit of buy-versus-build. We know you programmer types. You just want to build stuff and it's never the right stuff and you can't estimate for crap and your profession doesn't matter. Screw it, let's just put out an RFP and see if someone has a silver bullet so we can use it against you programmers! Lead bullets aren't working. Postscript: OK, now that I got all the snark out of my system, I feel better. It isn't that parts of this article are wrong but rather it makes extremely broad assumptions that all programmers are doing the same thing, in the same context, for the same reasons. The current gestalt around software development appears to be that only a select few are allowed to decide the "state of the art" in the profession. These anointed few enjoy autonomy and full creativity but the rest of us must check our brains at the door. Maybe it's just me, but I find this attitude extremely risky and deleterious to the industry and the human race. Of course, I am a grey beard, basement-dwelling, prima donna, perfectionist, anti-social, programmer so nobody will be surprised. |
Indeed, I'd go as far as saying this is straight up managerial tautological BS like I've heard many times.
"If the software doesn’t do what you need it to do, it’s useless.", said Captain Obvious. Well, of course it must solve the problem, but that's not enough, far from it.
And then the article promotes things like wordpress and webflow... well, I for sure know what code base I won't have to deal with when a bad plugin will break the "best code is no code" mantra.