[NCLUG] re: 'we have met the enemy, and he is us'

GMAN garett at preciselygreen.com
Wed Oct 15 17:27:10 MDT 2003


I agree with Alan, I also see this as a fellow HPite.

Let end with a famouos quote.


"We the unwilling,
led by the unknowing,
are doing the impossible
for the ungrateful.
We have done so much for so long with so little
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing"


Garett VanBeber






> Long $0.02 rant follows...
>
>> "I'm just asking that Linux application developers think their
>> projects through from A to Z, with Z representing a polished product
>> that installs successfully with minimal fuss."
>
> Hah!  In that case, Linux is doomed.  My lengthy experience as a
> software engineer is that hardly anyone shares my level of perfectionism
> (at least three sigma off the norm), and even people who do, can't keep
> enough in their heads to produce really polished products, and often
> can't agree between themselves what "perfect" looks like.  Software done
> RIGHT is HARD, really, really, HARD, possibly beyond the ability of mere
> mortals.  We continually settle for flaws and imperfections out of
> necessity and expediency.
>
> Really it amazed me repeatedly over the years just how incomplete and
> sloppy a job was done by so many of my equally highly paid co-workers.
> But I promise you that pointing this out only makes people unhappy and
> does not create positive change...  :-)
>
> The whole business is weird.  If you're building brick walls, you're
> likely to hire someone based on their demonstrated ability to build good
> brick walls, and you would never sign off on their finished work without
> looking at it.  But I never met a manager (at HP) who was willing to
> DEMAND examples of past work from interviewees (despite our legendary
> tough technical interviews), nor one who would, as a routine practice,
> inspect the deliverable finished work of their subordinates for quality
> (mine included).  One even told me this would be unprofessional and not
> respect individuals' own quality ethics.
>
> As I learned about open source, I thought, well good, at least the
> community will inspect each others' work and reject junk.  So it's
> disheartening to read that even today Linux suffers from ultimate
> failure of friendliness at the (G)UI; that it's from, by, and for
> geeks...  Oh well.  As always, "The finest eloquence is that which gets
> things done."
>
> Cheers anyway,
> Alan Silverstein
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