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0 pointswpietri9y ago0 comments

> Whenever I propose a design for something, I'm told to do it the fastest way which is usually a bad hack.

And why do you agree?

One of the differences between professionals and other workers is that professionals are experts in how to do their work. If I tell my doctor to just write me a prescription because I said so, she'll just scoff. I can make requests, but she decides what will happen and how.

Especially if you're already likely to quit this job, then you don't have much to lose by insisting on using best practices. Sure, you have to honor their desire to do things reasonably quickly. But you don't have to keep digging the hole deeper if you feel it is professionally negligent to do so.

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bigiain9y ago· 1 in thread

Even doctors understand that sometimes it's necessary to meet unrealistic deadline by doing quick and dirty hacks.

When you or I break our collar bone, the doctor will immobilise it in a sling for 4-8 weeks while it heals.

If you're chasing a motorcycle world championship though, they'll go in and screw it back together with titanium support and get you back to top-level performance in 2 days: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/108388

Sometimes you need to cut your code open, jam in some temporary scaffolding or duct tape, then stitch it back closed again - promising yourself you'll go back in and take the kludged fix back out when deadlines and circumstances are less critical...

wpietriOP9y ago

You write this like I don't know that. I of course do, because like most people here I have written a lot of production code.

This person is in a place where they have spent years piling kludge on kludge. They never go back and fix anything, which is why they have such a mess. And here there was no emergency mentioned; he was describing their normal practice. It's duct tape all the way down.

At some point you have to draw the line and say, "No, from now on, we'll treat normal circumstances like normal circumstances, and save the duct tape for real emergencies." I am suggesting he start drawing the line. Either they'll give in or they'll negotiate his exit, and either outcome is good for him. As the Agile people say, "Either change your organization or change your organization."

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