I just can't write normal software(thesoftwarephilosopher.com)
thesoftwarephilosopher.com
I just can't write normal software
https://www.thesoftwarephilosopher.com/articles/2023-08-03-i-just-cant-write-normal-software.html
5 comments
Why be natural when you can be SUPERnatural?
Just because it’s not web (LAMP or current-fad.js) software doesn’t make it “weird software”. By that definition everyone I work with does “weird software” since web technology (and the halo of stuff around it) never comes up. Just because places like HN are super, super biased towards web stuff doesn’t make everything else unusual.
It's not even that. Like, that article itself was generated by a SSG that I wrote myself because I wanted to use JSX on the backend without being anything like React (it's rendered as plain HTML by this runtime function[1]). Web or not, I just can't help but do everything differently than everyone else does.
[1]: https://github.com/sdegutis/sdegutis.github.io/blob/main/app...
[1]: https://github.com/sdegutis/sdegutis.github.io/blob/main/app...
Own it. You're hardly alone.
Let everyone else travel as a herd. It's cliched, but you're clearly the type of person who thinks outside the box. That makes you a trailblazer.
Let everyone else travel as a herd. It's cliched, but you're clearly the type of person who thinks outside the box. That makes you a trailblazer.
Maybe you find “CRUD” apps boring…? (Which is quite a reasonable view. Nothing wrong with CRUD, but it might simply not be everyone’s idea of fun.)
We need more people like you.
Looks like a typical case of Not Invented Here syndrome:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_invented_here
It's common for devs to go through this phase.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_invented_here
It's common for devs to go through this phase.
Two problems with that theory.
1. I'm using some external stuff, just not others, so where do you draw the line?
2. I've been doing this for my whole 15 year professional career. Doesn't seem like a phase.
1. I'm using some external stuff, just not others, so where do you draw the line?
2. I've been doing this for my whole 15 year professional career. Doesn't seem like a phase.
1. Most software stand in shoulders of giants. For example your OS and userland tools. I draw the line in terms of ROI (Return On Investment).
2. Me too. But pondering on ROI made me rethink some projects. Specially professionally when there are more people affected by my creative endeavors.
2. Me too. But pondering on ROI made me rethink some projects. Specially professionally when there are more people affected by my creative endeavors.
I guess that’s where I draw the line too. And I generally don’t even write software anymore because of that. Everything’s pretty much been done. The few websites I do need to maintain, though, I’m gonna make sure it’s something that isn’t a painful experience the whole time. Hence my custom SSG.
Is it a matter of not finding the problems solved by LAMP/js frameworks interesting? Or in the cases where you solve the same issues as the frameworks, are you not finding the upsides of using frameworks compelling enough to justify learning them enough to become more productive?
I have a few difficulties working on ordinary web CRUD apps:
1. I'm really bad at memorizing things, I'm better at memorizing principles. Which makes most APIs like Rails and Django difficult for me. This is probably why I ended up writing my own SSG where everything is just a Node.js import, even HTML is (via JSX, via my own lightweight runtime).
2. I'm really bad at accepting doing things the wrong way when the right way is so much better and obviously so. For example, I struggle to force myself to use EJS or any traditional express-compatible templating engine. This is also why I wrote my own on-top-of-node runtime with JSX support.
1. I'm really bad at memorizing things, I'm better at memorizing principles. Which makes most APIs like Rails and Django difficult for me. This is probably why I ended up writing my own SSG where everything is just a Node.js import, even HTML is (via JSX, via my own lightweight runtime).
2. I'm really bad at accepting doing things the wrong way when the right way is so much better and obviously so. For example, I struggle to force myself to use EJS or any traditional express-compatible templating engine. This is also why I wrote my own on-top-of-node runtime with JSX support.
I say don't worry about the orthodoxy of your stuff, only the function of your stuff.
If it meets your priorities better than the usual way, then by definition it was more correct than the usual way. It just means your priorities were different than others, but that is fine. Other peolple are idiots who don't even know why they do what they do. As long as you know why you do something a certain way, that's all that matters.