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How about a culture of "stop fucking up". (I admit I stole this from Ted Dziuba, but it has stuck with me.) People who are willing to call things "shit" instead of being nicey-nice at least give a shit. But it is important to be intellectually honest, and not be egotistical about one's own code, which could be shit just like anyone else's.



"Stop fucking up" quickly ends up with "stop taking risks" and "design by committee", which may be a good idea if you write avionics or banking software, but perhaps not in other markets.


> "stop taking risks" and "design by committee",

Those are both fuck ups. So, I respectfully disagree that "stop fucking up" leads to those ever and suggest you don't understand what fucking up entails.


Those are more subtle fuck ups that the company might not notice for a long time, usually when you're eclipsed by the competition and upper management has been replaced.

A better slogan might be "always make new mistakes".


I don't like Dziuba's harshness sometimes, but I agree with this sentiment. Code doesn't care about your feelings, and you shouldn't either. Just write good stuff that works, and if it's not good, don't blunt the message. If you think code and programmers should respect your feelings, you'll get slow code with many bugs, and few people willing to do anything about it in order not to hurt other people's feelings.

Straight up honesty is the best medicine when it comes to software. If you have a problem with this kind of honesty, find something else to do.


>> People who are willing to call things "shit" instead of being nicey-nice at least give a shit.

Or they're just adhering to the culture of calling all imperfect code shit because that's what they see others doing.

>> But it is important to be intellectually honest, and not be egotistical about one's own code, which could be shit just like anyone else's.

Well said.


If someone's "fucking up" repeatedly, either constructively work to remediate them or replace them. But simply being a jerk does not prove or disprove that you "give a shit". It just means you're not very good at articulating what's actually bothering you or separating the actual problem from your frustration.




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