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If you can't understand the spec for a new technology, don't worry: nobody else will understand it either, and the technology won't be that important.

Joel Spolsky

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Joel Spolsky
Age: 59
Born: 1965
Born: January 1
Businessperson
Chief Executive Officer
Computer Scientist
Programmer
Software Engineer
Albuquerque
New Mexico
Avram Joel Spolsky
Either
Understand
Else
Important
Spec
Specs
Nobody
Technology
Worry

More quotes by Joel Spolsky

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If something seems possible, that's probably because someone is already doing it. When something seems that it can't possibly work, nobody tries it. Real innovation happens when someone tries anyway, overlooking an obvious flaw, and finds a way to make an idea work.
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Software development takes immense intellectual effort. Even the best programmers can rarely sustain that level of effort for more than a few hours a day. Beyond that, they need to rest their brains a bit, which is why they always seem to be surfing the Internet or playing games when you barge in on them.
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There's a subtle reason that programmers always want to throw away the code and start over. The reason is that they think the old code is a mess. [...] The reason that they think the old code is a mess is because of a cardinal, fundamental law of programming: It's harder to read code than to write it.
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I've been using Vista on my home laptop since it shipped, and can say with some conviction that nobody should be using it as their primary operating system - it simply has no redeeming merits to overcome the compatibility headaches it causes.
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People ridiculously overvalue aesthetics and beauty when evaluating products. It's one of the reasons iPods, and, for that matter, Keanu Reeves, are so successful.
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We just have to come in every morning and somehow, launch the editor.
Joel Spolsky
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The secret of Big Macs is that they're not very good, but every one is not very good in exactly the same way.
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Full service brokers, in this day and age of low cost mutual funds and discount brokers, are really nothing more than machines for ripping off retail investors.
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Last week I was listening to a podcast on Hanselminutes, with Robert Martin talking about the SOLID principles... They all sounded to me like extremely bureaucratic programming that came from the mind of somebody that has not written a lot of code, frankly.
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Writing code is not production, it's not always craftsmanship though it can be, it's design.
Joel Spolsky
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Nothing works better than just improving your product.
Joel Spolsky
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Design adds value faster than it adds cost.
Joel Spolsky
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An idea isn't worth that much. It's the execution of the idea that has value. If you can't convince one other person that this is something to devote your life to, then it's not worth it.
Joel Spolsky
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That's another flaw with performance-based rewards: They are easy for one of your competitors to top.
Joel Spolsky
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Life is a bit hard sometimes, and sometimes you have to step up and fight fights that you never signed up for.
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Beware of Methodologies. They are a great way to bring everyone up to a dismal, but passable, level of performance, but at the same time, they are aggravating to more talented people who chafe at the restrictions that are placed on them.
Joel Spolsky
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Never put yourself in a position that will put yourself at risk if you make the wrong decision. We spent cash on everything. It's fashionable to make 'bet the company' decisions, but don't do it.
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If your goals is to produce something of permanent value, you start to think differently about you want on the site.
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Good software, like wine, takes time.
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Common programmer thought pattern: there are only three numbers: 0, 1, and n.
Joel Spolsky