RE: [SLUG] Good, Fast and Cheap?

From: Robert Eanes (rheanes3@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Aug 15 2003 - 10:29:41 EDT


I've recenlty had some first hand experience of what
happens when you invest your pride and personal
reputation into your work. For the past 60 to 70
years Americans have been taught to produce the best
that you can... Be an artist in everything that you
do. I'm looking more at what colleges have been
teaching than the reality of the business world here.
Unfortunately, the rest of the work does not share our
outlook. We are competing against people who have no
pride in their work... who have a much more realistic
view of the reality of business. Every man is a whore
in business. It's a sad but true reality.

If you wish to pursue artistry in your work... go into
business for yourself.. You will soon learn that the
demands of the market will turn your work into an
abomination.

The only answer that I see.. is to take pride in how
well you serve.. until such a time when you are in
management and can make the decisions affecting how a
shop is run.

As many of the others posting to this thread have
commented..... I wouldn't gladly trade places with you
right now... Do what is asked of you and like it... if
you don't then someone else will.

Lots of Luck
Rob

>
> Hello SLUGgers!
>
> I'm having a bit of a problem with my new employer.
> I've spent many
> years developing software for some bigger
> development houses that follow
> structured development processes and created some
> high quality, stable,
> and maintainable software. I recently took a job
> with a small three
> developer shop.
>
> Here is my problem. Their code is crap. I mean
> lousy, patched togeher
> and undocumented. I've been assigned to fix some
> bugs in the app and I
> took the time to analyze and document the proper
> solution. It seems
> that my method of analysis was and I quote "a waste
> of time... if we all
> took that much time to look at the problem we would
> go out of business"
>
> My boss further explained that I should just find a
> quick solution,
> patch it, slam it out and let the user community
> test it in production.
> To say the least I'm perplexed. My years of
> development experience
> tells me this is a BAD trend that will come back to
> bite me in the arse
> later. I understand being nimble and staying
> profitable. I've tired to
> explain that good code takes some time and fast code
> cost more money
> later but he will not listen.
>
> I need the income, but should I compromise my
> standards?
>
> Any advice?
> Russ
>

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