Joe Ganley: Hackers != painters

Maciej Ceglowski writes an excellent, half-facetious rebuttal to Paul Graham's Hackers and Painters essay. I didn't buy this analogy when I read it, and still don't, and Ceglowski does a great job of enumerating why it doesn't fly. I've always thought of programmers more like 'design and build' contractors. The best of them are both good architects and good builders, and like programmers who are good at both of these things, they are rare. Many more are either good architects and spotty builders (their buildings look nice and function well but are poorly constructed) or vice-versa (their buildings are well put-together but don't flow well or are unattractive), and of course some aren't good at either.

Labels: software_development

Joe Ganley	I make software and sometimes other things.

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Hackers != painters
Maciej Ceglowski writes an excellent, half-facetious rebuttal to Paul Graham's Hackers and Painters essay. I didn't buy this analogy when I read it, and still don't, and Ceglowski does a great job of enumerating why it doesn't fly. I've always thought of programmers more like 'design and build' contractors. The best of them are both good architects and good builders, and like programmers who are good at both of these things, they are rare. Many more are either good architects and spotty builders (their buildings look nice and function well but are poorly constructed) or vice-versa (their buildings are well put-together but don't flow well or are unattractive), and of course some aren't good at either. Labels: software_development 0 Comments: Post a Comment << Home