Comments on: The Value of Complexity http://webgambit.com/2009/10/15/the-value-of-complexity/ Thoughts on Software Development from Karthik Hariharan Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:11:26 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Karthik Hariharan http://webgambit.com/2009/10/15/the-value-of-complexity/comment-page-1/#comment-118 Karthik Hariharan Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:16:16 +0000 http://webgambit.com/?p=114#comment-118 I definitely think there is value in providing options for the hobbyists so that we continue to attract great minds to the field. Most of the great developers I know today didn't go to school for it. And I know many people are thinking "I was just a hobbyist, would I have gotten into this industry had I been 10 years late?"<br><br>I don't think the options for the hobbyist have diminished, in fact I think they have increased. But I think having a filter for the hobbyists is not a bad thing. I definitely think there is value in providing options for the hobbyists so that we continue to attract great minds to the field. Most of the great developers I know today didn't go to school for it. And I know many people are thinking “I was just a hobbyist, would I have gotten into this industry had I been 10 years late?”

I don't think the options for the hobbyist have diminished, in fact I think they have increased. But I think having a filter for the hobbyists is not a bad thing.

]]> By: Steve Bohlen http://webgambit.com/2009/10/15/the-value-of-complexity/comment-page-1/#comment-117 Steve Bohlen Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:01:39 +0000 http://webgambit.com/?p=114#comment-117 I am in general agreement with the thrust of your point; software development as a profession still struggles with reconciling its roots as the domain of hobbyists and part-time fiddlers and there is significant 'professional debt' that the industry carries around that hearkens back to those days where any old member of a department could write a useful software program with little formal training. <br><br>The sooner we jettison this baggage and recognize that as the expectations for what software "should" be able to do and the reliability with which it "should" be expected to do it preclude the amateur doing the development work, the better off we will all be.<br><br>After all, you don't see the neurosurgeons complaining that "my mom cannot perform brain surgery any more, so clearly neurosurgery has become too complex" :) I am in general agreement with the thrust of your point; software development as a profession still struggles with reconciling its roots as the domain of hobbyists and part-time fiddlers and there is significant 'professional debt' that the industry carries around that hearkens back to those days where any old member of a department could write a useful software program with little formal training.

The sooner we jettison this baggage and recognize that as the expectations for what software “should” be able to do and the reliability with which it “should” be expected to do it preclude the amateur doing the development work, the better off we will all be.

After all, you don't see the neurosurgeons complaining that “my mom cannot perform brain surgery any more, so clearly neurosurgery has become too complex” :)

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