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0 pointsSwizec3mo ago0 comments

> including totally trashing the old implementation and creating an entirely new one from scratch that matches all the requirements

Let me guess, you've never worked in a real production environment?

When your software supports 8, 9, 10 or more zeroes of revenue, "trash the old and create new" are just about the scariest words you can say. There's people relying on this code that you've never even heard of.

Really good post about why AI is a poor fit in software environments where nobody even knows the full requirements: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/production-telemetry-spec-sur...

0 comments

12 comments · 3 top-level

empath753mo ago· 4 in thread

> When your software supports 8, 9, 10 or more zeroes of revenue, "trash the old and create new" are just about the scariest words you can say. There's people relying on this code that you've never even heard of.

Well, now it'll take them 5 minutes to rewrite their code to work around your change.

SwizecOP3mo ago

> Well, now it'll take them 5 minutes to rewrite their code to work around your change

You misunderstand. It will take them 2 years to retrain 5000 people on the new process across hundreds of locations. In some fields, whole new college-level certifications courses will have to be created.

In my specific experience it’s just a few dozen (maybe 100) people doing the manual process on top of our software and it takes weeks for everyone to get used to any significant change.

We still have people using pages that we deprecated a year ago. Nobody can figure out who they are or what they’re missing on the new pages we built

loloquwowndueo3mo ago

> You misunderstand. It will take them 2 years to retrain 5000 people on the new process across hundreds of locations. In some fields, whole new college-level certifications courses will have to be created.

Replace them by AI.

I’m still being sarcastic.

dolmen3mo ago

Ask AI about a strategy and tools to build to figure out.

1 more reply

procaryote3mo ago

That will be after it broke, which costs money

Also: no

person223mo ago· 3 in thread

I work on a product that meets your criteria. We can't fix a class of defects because once we ship, customers will depend upon that behavior and changing is very expensive and takes years to deprecate and age out. So we are stuck with what we ship and need to be very careful about what we release.

fhd23mo ago

That's why I find any effort to create specifications... cute. In brownfield software, more often than not, the code _is_ the specification.

suzzer993mo ago

But if you start from the beginning with a code base that is always only generated from a spec, presumably as the tools improve you'd be able to grow to a big industrial-grade app that is 100% based on a spec.

The question is how many giant apps out there have yet to be even started vs. how many brownfield apps out there that will outlive all of us.

1 more reply

patates3mo ago

This might be the "Steve, Don't Eat It!" version of the xkcd workflow comic.

Whatever you ship, steve will eat, and some steves will develop an addiction.

dctoedt3mo ago· 2 in thread

> Let me guess, you've never worked in a real production environment?

The comment to which you're responding includes a note at the end that the commenter is being sarcastic. Perhaps that wasn't in the comment when you responded to it.

SwizecOP3mo ago

It wasn’t thanks for highlighting. Can be hard to tell online because there’s a lot of people genuinely suggesting everyone should build their own software on the fly

rsoto23mo ago

If the amount of code corporations produce goes even 2x there's gonna be a lot of jobs for us to fix every company's JIRA implementation because the c-suite is full of morons.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

12 comments · 3 top-level

empath753mo ago· 4 in thread

Well, now it'll take them 5 minutes to rewrite their code to work around your change.

SwizecOP3mo ago

> Well, now it'll take them 5 minutes to rewrite their code to work around your change

In my specific experience it’s just a few dozen (maybe 100) people doing the manual process on top of our software and it takes weeks for everyone to get used to any significant change.

We still have people using pages that we deprecated a year ago. Nobody can figure out who they are or what they’re missing on the new pages we built

loloquwowndueo3mo ago

Replace them by AI.

I’m still being sarcastic.

dolmen3mo ago

Ask AI about a strategy and tools to build to figure out.

1 more reply

procaryote3mo ago

That will be after it broke, which costs money

Also: no

person223mo ago· 3 in thread

fhd23mo ago

That's why I find any effort to create specifications... cute. In brownfield software, more often than not, the code _is_ the specification.

suzzer993mo ago

The question is how many giant apps out there have yet to be even started vs. how many brownfield apps out there that will outlive all of us.

1 more reply

patates3mo ago

This might be the "Steve, Don't Eat It!" version of the xkcd workflow comic.

Whatever you ship, steve will eat, and some steves will develop an addiction.

dctoedt3mo ago· 2 in thread

> Let me guess, you've never worked in a real production environment?

The comment to which you're responding includes a note at the end that the commenter is being sarcastic. Perhaps that wasn't in the comment when you responded to it.

SwizecOP3mo ago

It wasn’t thanks for highlighting. Can be hard to tell online because there’s a lot of people genuinely suggesting everyone should build their own software on the fly

rsoto23mo ago

If the amount of code corporations produce goes even 2x there's gonna be a lot of jobs for us to fix every company's JIRA implementation because the c-suite is full of morons.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse