

Quantity Always Trumps Quality - mtts
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001160.html

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henning
Jeff likes to give his posts misleading titles.

Iteration (which is what he's referring to when he says "quantity") is an
essential part of quality software. But "quantity over quality" suggests
perpetually producing lots of crap without regard to outcomes.

Still, his call to prefer working, shipping code over paralysis-through-
analysis is very good.

~~~
stcredzero
Actually, the preference for Iteration is really just another form of
"Evolution is Smarter Than You." Or, if you will: You'll never learn as much
about [X] by just thinking about it, as opposed to actually doing [X] a whole
bunch! (While thinking about it.)

~~~
michaelneale
An interesting counterpoint (kind of anyway):
[http://ravimohan.blogspot.com/2007/04/learning-from-
sudoku-s...](http://ravimohan.blogspot.com/2007/04/learning-from-sudoku-
solvers.html)

~~~
stcredzero
But that is Doing & Thinking vs. Doing & not enough thinking.

Our options are:

    
    
        1) Too much thinking, not enough doing
        2) Balanced thinking & doing
        3) Too much doing, not enough thinking
    

As often is the case, the middle path is best.

~~~
michaelneale
Yes I agree, its not a terribly interesting conclusion, but a balanced
approach wins (at least for interesting problems). I guess there is often a
risk that there is too much thought/talk versus action more so then the
reverse (not to say that the reverse doesn't happen, it is just rarer).

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peakok
_the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had
little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of
dead clay._

Is it narcissism when authors believe their readers are so stupid that they'll
drink everything they write ? Don't we deserve at least some sort of credible
example, even if it's obviously made up and exagerated to fit the author's
narrowed perception of reality ?

~~~
unalone
See, by Atwood's very sound reasoning, we'll help him improve quality by not
reading his blog and by supporting somebody who's actually a writer worth
reading. But his article doesn't cover the fact that hackers are subject to
inertia like everybody else.

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Alex3917
This illustrates why RSS is a failure. Almost all of the people with the most
subscribers are the ones who churn out mindless crap on a regular schedule. So
much for the theory that RSS would give those who publish great stuff
intermittently an equal shot at the limelight.

~~~
pchristensen
I don't see how reguarly posted crap takes anything away from occasional
quality. _Of course_ the people who post regularly get the most subscribers -
they produce the most stuff! But I subscribe to about 200 feeds, most (150+)
of which don't publish even once a week. Without RSS I would never bother to
follow them.

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marcus
As I've always said, the difference between the expert programmer and the
novice isn't that the expert is smarter, he just did the same stupid mistakes
so many times, he knows his way out.

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babul
To me, this is stating the obvious.

The best way to learn is by doing, and the best way to get better is to
(happily) make mistakes and learn.

Nobody/nothing is perfect, and often (perceived/contextual) perfection is
derived from iteration. And the hardest part about iteration is often making
the start.

------
sanj
This only works if you learn with each iteration. At times I don't. Learning
is an active process and needs time and effort dedicated to it. Otherwise
you're running in place.

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edw519
Misleading title.

More accurate: Quantity _Causes_ Quality.

~~~
Anon84
Practice does _not_ make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. If you keep
repeating the same mistakes over and over again, you gain nothing.

~~~
albertcardona
My tae kwon do master states the same:

"Slow, well done, steady."

[as opposed to aerobics shake-it-all with music "gymnastics"]

~~~
LogicHoleFlaw
"Do it. Do it right. Do it right now."

