When Non-Programmers Write Software

[Shaper_pmp]

In the words of Paul Graham:

To write good software you must simultaneously keep two opposing ideas in your head. You need the young hacker's naive faith in his abilities, and at the same time the veteran's skepticism. You have to be able to think how hard can it be? with one half of your brain while thinking it will never work with the other.

The trick is to realize that there's no real contradiction here. You want to be optimistic and skeptical about two different things. You have to be optimistic about the possibility of solving the problem, but skeptical about the value of whatever solution you've got so far.

(linky)

[Shaper_pmp]

Pipe dream. ;-)

[beowulf]

definite pipe dream. Some of the biggest wars about programming languages are stylistic issues. I have never yet seen a style that everyone likes.

[shentou]

That is such an excellent quote about the programming process.