
The Churn - b123400
http://blog.cleancoder.com/uncle-bob/2016/07/27/TheChurn.html
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azanar
I really hope people do not misunderstand this article.

Until I reminded myself to assume good faith about the author (which is
usually worth it with this author), I felt myself assuming he was disparaging
all things new as being shiny and therefore unprofessional.

I don't believe that is the point of this article, and I worry the caricature
is a little so over the top that people will interpret it as such a little too
easily.

I think the point is this: don't confuse movement with progress. New is not
_necessarily_ better. The world of software tools is like any other
marketplace of ideas: you will have a curve of early adopters onto the
stragglers. It is not worth assuming that a tool is worth upending the world
over just because the early adopters are jumping up and down about how it
will. Most things won't. But some things will.

The point isn't novelty. It is value. Novelty has value, particularly social
and sentimental value, but often it is fleeting. Other forms of value aren't.
It is worth considering the new thing in all perspectives of value.

~~~
mshenfield
Appreciate you framing it in a thoughtful light.

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gorpomon
The last line of this piece is:

> And become a goddam profession.

Hurray? What do we gain by becoming a profession? I guess we get 9 to 5 work,
conferences, meetings and boredom. Sounds like we're a profession already, but
I guess not. Honestly, I'm not sure I'm a big fan of professions.

Shiny things, those are what children like, and I guess children aren't
professional so we should get rid of shiny things.

And since we're getting rid of childlike things, let's get rid of:

\- The joy of discovery

\- The feeling of creating something from nothing

\- The empowerment of solving our problems in new ways

\- The utter joy of entering a new community of amazing people

I guess we lose all that, because it's time to be a goddamn profession.

~~~
jestar_jokin
I guess it's more about adjusting your reward system to be driven by helping
others, rather than self gratification. I agree, your points can be what makes
the work enjoyable on a personal level; but most people will working for
others, so it makes sense to deliver the best solution for _them_.

So, although it's fun to reinvent wheels - partly to build up your skills and
knowledge, and satisfy one's curiosity - the best solution for your
customer/client/manager/business might be to use something off the shelf.

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jupp0r
I'm kind of disappointed by Uncle Bob. I really liked his books, but
designating Java as the end state if all progress would really take all the
joy out of the job I love.

Apart from that, logarithm functions do not converge ftw.

