THE CODE ISSUE 29

Duda Owner IONOS • August 7, 2015

Here is another one of my favorite quotes from the special double issue of Bloomberg Businessweek on computer coding. This one captures the wide disparity among stakeholders on exactly what software should and should not accomplish (Paul Ford, “The Code Issue”, 6/15/15–6/28/15, p. 102):

You feel some pity for the coders now. Obviously, they will inherit the earth. But in their race to the summit, they missed a lot of memos.

[The programmer affirms] ‘I just want to ship,’ . . . by which he means: ‘I just want to do what I was asked to do.’ But so much of the company hears that as, ‘I just want to destroy everything I touch. For I am Kali, destroyer of best practices. . . .

He’s afraid, you realize, that you can’t understand the work he’s doing, that you see software as a thing and not a golden braid forever weaving.





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