The article is a puerile rant; it borders on incoherent, lacks any rational supporting argument, and does little to convince the reader besides advancing emotional declarations.
"The only question is, how big a dick move was it?"
"It's only a good thing for people who fuck up a lot."
Oh well; I liked it, especially the part about "professionalism". There is a place in the dialogue for puerile rants. Some topics deserve nothing else.
hey sho, I appreciate the effort at defending me and all that, but yeah, it was totally a rant. I didn't get as far as the first sentence without mentioning my own balls. I aim for a high standard of rationality in my rants, but a rant is definitely the word.
I didn't understand what the rant was truly all about, but it was a hoot. Extra props for linking to suck.com's posting from 1998. Oh, and the photo of a Kitler.
Consultants need to make a living somehow, just waiting for the next fad to come along. The most sane approach to TDD is by Cedric Beust (author of TestNG: http://beust.com/weblog/).
Seems to have alot of quotes and intention taken out way of context. I think Uncle Bob would agree with alot of the points you made had you not redefined and distorted what he said.
To take an easy example: "A high standard of professional ethics, behaviour and work activities while carrying out one's profession" is not the same thing as acting like Henry Rollins.
Actually, I'd argue that quote is a pretty good description of Henry Rollins's behavior and work ethic. Of course, if you also consider that he started his publishing company while living and working in a tool shed, it might be hard to call him overly professional. And yeah, I get that the Rollins reference is a joke. But I'm a fan of Old Man Hank; I couldn't help but chime in here.
To be honest this rant didn't really inspire me much one way or the other, but the suck.com linkage is definitely worth the read.
If you find that interesting, study the blog post Atwood wrote about how you shouldn't use images in your blog the way I use images in my blog. This would be the post he wrote about three to six months before he started using images in his blog the way I use images in my blog.
On professionalism:
Giles and Martin are using different definitions of professionalism. Martin was explicit about his definition: adherence to quality standards, even under external pressure. Giles uses that to rant about suits, which is completely beside the point.
Of course programming doesn't need more "professionalism" in the sense of suits and firm handshakes. It does need more professionalism in the sense of "I'm sorry Mr Sales Guy, but your deadline is unrealistic. Let's discuss the features we can cut to make that deadline, or the schedule revisions that we need to complete the project."
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[ 2.4 ms ] story [ 57.5 ms ] threadIf you disagree with something in it, just say so.
"The only question is, how big a dick move was it?"
"It's only a good thing for people who fuck up a lot."
Nice one, Mr. Bowkett.
To take an easy example: "A high standard of professional ethics, behaviour and work activities while carrying out one's profession" is not the same thing as acting like Henry Rollins.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professionalism
To be honest this rant didn't really inspire me much one way or the other, but the suck.com linkage is definitely worth the read.
It'd be interesting to study the cross-pollination between bloggers and to chart that.
Of course programming doesn't need more "professionalism" in the sense of suits and firm handshakes. It does need more professionalism in the sense of "I'm sorry Mr Sales Guy, but your deadline is unrealistic. Let's discuss the features we can cut to make that deadline, or the schedule revisions that we need to complete the project."