Mixing up and cherry picking the concept of an art and a craft made this a pretty annoying read for me.
> Non-programmers don’t care about the aesthetics of software in the same way non-plumbers don’t care about the aesthetics of plumbing
I personally care about the 'aesthetics of plumbing' if I'm able to see them (which I might not be able to).
When we're talking about aesthetics, it means to me that I value the thing because it's a clever solution to a problem. A solution that requires the minimum amount of effort/energy/material and delivers the expected result. I don't really care if somebody designed a lock, a valve , a differential gear, a sorting algorithm or an API.
We can also talk about aesthetics in music or paintings, but those will be subject to the person looking at them and the society that person lives in. Some people think skyscrapers are aesthetic, some people dislike them. While aesthetics in art tend to be more subjective, the engineering solutions are more objective in that regard.
> Non-programmers don’t care about the aesthetics of software in the same way non-plumbers don’t care about the aesthetics of plumbing
I myself think the problem is precisely the opposite: people do care about the aesthetics of plumbing, and of programming. They just care about it in ways that have nothing do to with how well it works. We, as consumers, care far too much about "pretty" and far too little about "effective".
Well-crafted anything doesn't necessarily stand out, IME. It just works. This is an admirable trait, but it can't seem to compete with "beautiful". It's a shame that making things that work well is somehow less admirable that making things that look nice.
Why are comments like getonit's getting downvoted on Hacker News now? I'm obviously assuming it's dwnvoted because it is appearing in a much 'lighter' font. But has something I don't understand changed about downvoting? Every article has several constructive comments at the bottom, seemingly downvoted for absolutely no reason. It's really ruining the comment threads.
Because the Emperor is not naked, dammit, and people like me shouldn't be encouraged to spread rumors that he is :)
Fear not though - as someone with an entire menagerie of unpopular opinions about programming, business and life in general, karma as a measure of agreement with the opinion is more useful to me than as a measure of people's opinion on the constructiveness of the comment. It's also feeding a spectacular persecution complex, which comes in handy when I discover I've been talking rubbish on a subject :)
> Non-programmers don’t care about the aesthetics of software in the same way non-plumbers don’t care about the aesthetics of plumbing
I personally care about the 'aesthetics of plumbing' if I'm able to see them (which I might not be able to).
When we're talking about aesthetics, it means to me that I value the thing because it's a clever solution to a problem. A solution that requires the minimum amount of effort/energy/material and delivers the expected result. I don't really care if somebody designed a lock, a valve , a differential gear, a sorting algorithm or an API.
We can also talk about aesthetics in music or paintings, but those will be subject to the person looking at them and the society that person lives in. Some people think skyscrapers are aesthetic, some people dislike them. While aesthetics in art tend to be more subjective, the engineering solutions are more objective in that regard.