Dave Chapelle Endorses Radical Simplicity
By Alex Bunardzic under Then they laugh at you... on 13. December 2005Apologies for cross-posting again, but I thought this little piece on radical simplicity could be of interest to lesscoders. The reason I didn’t post it here is simply due to the fact that it contains a bit of an illicit language, which I wasn’t sure would be tolerated inhere. So anyway, if interested, read all about it here:
Dave Chapelle Endorses Radical Simplicity
Anonymous:
This is going to help me write better software how? Is this lesscode.org or lesstalkaboutcode.org?
comment at 13. December 2005
Alex Bunardzic:
Anonymous wrote:
You see, everyone nowadays wants to be given a formula. Give me an equation that I can fill in and then produce a high quality product.
That’s not how it works, my friend. There is no Golden Mean Rule in software development. You’ve got to put in your guts, your blood, sweat and tears.
Go ahead and read a book on wabi-sabi. In there, you’ll learn about the importance of space, of silence, of emptiness. But you’ll also realize that there is no recipe, no formula you could use to calculate the amount of space, the amount of silence to be taken for giving stunning quality.
Code should talk for itself. No one talks about code.
comment at 13. December 2005
Fredrik:
The internet is full of blogs that link to sexist crap. Do we really need another one?
comment at 13. December 2005
Peter Harkins:
This is going to help me write better software how?
I think this post is saying that to write better code, you need to treat women badly. I don’t really follow the argument, either.
comment at 13. December 2005
Matt:
Just because we all write code doesn’t mean we can’t laugh from time to time.
Alex, thanks for the post.
comment at 13. December 2005
james governor:
its called an abstraction.
next time you’re talking to someone about why they should use lesscode what are you going to say if they just push back “Why?”
in order to sell lesscode as a concept its essential to look for metaphors and stories that underpin it - like the robot attack story. a joke is another useful piece of ammunition in arguing for lesscode.
alex’s point - why not focus on four things rather than 100.
if you give someone a list of 100 hundred things they are overwhelmed.
a list of 4 - that really boil down some important issues, is more useful.
I dont really know where Fredrick is coming from. I guess you don’t enjoy standup comedy?
if you think you can evangelise lesscode by talking about bits then you are screwed.
Ryan and Alex are trying to do something else.
what does the 37signals blog signal to noise include pictures of things that are nicely designed? because these pointers tell a story.
comment at 13. December 2005
Fredrik:
I never thought there would be that many reactionaries on this blog. You learn something new everyday.
comment at 13. December 2005
Anonymous:
James Governor: you made the point better than the original poster in your comment. Your posting is clear, concise and conveys meaning. It was also posted directly on this site instead of trying to drive traffic away.
Sometimes I agree with story/joke/abstraction as a learning tool. Other times, the point is so simple that it’s not necessary. Does someone really need to mention a woman playing with a man’s balls in order to get the point across that less is more? I guess it just seemed like a stunt for link traffic. He’s done it a few times.
comment at 14. December 2005