“ Another common thing Architecture Astronauts like to do is invent some new architecture and claim it solves something. Java, XML, Soap, XmlRpc, Hailstorm, .NET, Jini, oh lord I can’t keep up. And that’s just in the last 12 months!”
Wow, this hasn’t aged well. I always found Joel’s articles to be interesting but pretty limited in actual wisdom. He writes as if to be making profound observations, but in reality they are actually pretty narrow minded and really only apply to a very narrow nitch of computing as a whole and really only apply well to a certain startup type — not technically complex communications, productivity or organizational type software.
His advice is invalid for the development of anything more complex, for example you shouldn’t take his advice if you’re building a biotech company or starting a new kind of tech company that isn’t your run of the mill CRUD app.
I think it’s rather disingenuous and quite arrogant to make generalizations about the types of people who work at big companies (without even knowing what they do or having ever met them). I’m sure the same traits that make one have disdain for corporations are the same drivers that cause one to become an entrepreneur, and then blog loudly about it to the world.
> I think it’s rather disingenuous and quite arrogant to make generalizations about the types of people who work at big companies (without even knowing what they do or having ever met them).
I get where you're coming from, with your reply as a whole and not just this snippet, but I think it's worth pointing out that Joel did work at Microsoft for quite a few years during its historically ascendent and dominant period in the 90s so I think he has at least some idea about the types of people that work at big companies.
If you want to talk about things that haven't aged well, SOAP would be right up there - you may not remember all the fanfare surrounding it, but I certainly do, and where exactly is it now? I know it's still used in some legacy contexts. I've even seen SOAP responses within the last 5 - 7 years, but it's basically dead (or at least stagnated) tech that isn't used for newer projects and systems, and certainly isn't something we'd even consider using.
> His advice is invalid for the development of anything more complex...
I think his advice would be 'does this actually have to be more complex?' - I suspect. If might superficially look complex, but could it be actually be handled in an old-school , simpler manner?
Wow, this hasn’t aged well. I always found Joel’s articles to be interesting but pretty limited in actual wisdom. He writes as if to be making profound observations, but in reality they are actually pretty narrow minded and really only apply to a very narrow nitch of computing as a whole and really only apply well to a certain startup type — not technically complex communications, productivity or organizational type software.
His advice is invalid for the development of anything more complex, for example you shouldn’t take his advice if you’re building a biotech company or starting a new kind of tech company that isn’t your run of the mill CRUD app.
I think it’s rather disingenuous and quite arrogant to make generalizations about the types of people who work at big companies (without even knowing what they do or having ever met them). I’m sure the same traits that make one have disdain for corporations are the same drivers that cause one to become an entrepreneur, and then blog loudly about it to the world.