There are ways to write that are faster and more legible. I recommend looking into the Getty-Dubay style.

Thanks, though I think part of longhard feeling labourious these days is RSI sadly. I did try to correct my scrawl for effort and legibility a while ago, but it just wouldn't stick!

I had pretty terrible RSI (and even more terrible handwriting) and could write much without cramping up or pain. What helped for me was teaching myself proper cursive and fountain pens. Rather than clutching a ballpoint and marking with jerky finger/wrist movements, I now use my arm for larger movements and let the pen glide. It’s helped tremendously. It’s slow going at first but keep at it. Plus fountain pens are pretty fucking cool. Also, paper matters too; but paper and notebooks are another fun rabbit hole.

I cannot read dark grey text on a black background

If you've ever used NFS you've used one of the oldest distributed object systems still in use, developed by Sun Microsystems. Variously called Sun RPC, Remote Procedure Calls, or Open Network Computing Remote Procedure Call

I participated in something kind of the opposite of that: multiple microservices in independent repos, but with intertwining dependencies on each other. Adding features meant shotgun surgery across at least 3 repos/services, sometimes more.

Those laws used to apply, until the courts adopted Robert Bork's "consumer welfare standard" in the 80s, under Reaganism.

Analyzed well here: https://yalelawjournal.org/pdf/e.710.Khan.805_zuvfyyeh.pdf

> It’s quite common for companies to work their way up to the line of the most user hostile version of their product that users will tolerate

I get the impression that many companies are working through this with AI-assisted coding. How bad can the product get before the revenue loss is greater than money saved by firing programmers and deploying AI slop? For products like Windows and Office, the subscription model and enterprise account revenue provides a huge cushion for decreasing quality before they even have to apologize and roll back.

We have a word for a specification precise enough for a computer to execute: that word is “code”

well written intent can compile into code. This is just about shifting left with the design.

You know I think I'll let E.W. Dijkstra say it for me. https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD06xx/EWD667...

I can't tell if the author's "when we get AGI" is sarcasm or genuine.

Genuine!

To an extent, these people have found their religion, and rational discussion does not come into play. As with previous tech Holy Wars over operating systems, editors, and programming languages, their self-image is tied to the technology.

Where the tech argument doesn't apply to upper management, business practices, the need to "not be left behind" and leap at anything that promises reducing headcount without reducing revenue, money talks. As long as it's possible to slop something together, charge for it, and profit, slop will win.

A good spec-writer, as the article notes, is writing code.

It's part of the job, but has never been the fun part for me. Solving the puzzle with code and that "holy shit it actually works" moment has always been the part I get the most satisfaction from.