Joe's Jottings
Jottings Number 55, Reply E, by David Straker:
Date: Thu, 16 May 96 07:19:03 -0700
As ever, your jottings and their responses stir the grey matter. I
looked again at the message I just sent and don't think it conveys well
my thoughts. Could you ignore it and try this one... ?
>From Masa Habu's response...
>in Nintendo-type game software industry. I have read an article
>which points out that a Japanese game software industry is young
>and very "undisciplined". It's a high-risk, high-return market
>where a key software designer/engineer gets paid a lot. This
>high pay attracts talented people seeking a fortune. Of course,
>the majority would just fail. It is a high-risk business.
I was that man. Before being at HP, I was a reasonably successful
programmer
in a games company. I left because of (a) boredom with the same old
thing (games are surprisingly similar inside) (b) the risk (we had two
bust periods in 4 years), but must of all (c) the frantic hacking.
I sought a better way at HP, where, maybe unsurprisingly, I found that
many (but not all) of the 'better' programmers still had an aversion to
such basics as comments ('it's obvious!'). Maintenance of creative code
was not fun.
I'm still seeking a better way, but not in software. Here, I have found
that many successful people in other areas are also 'hackers',
succeeding through intuitive leaps as much as structured reasoning.
Perhaps the answer is in some form of dynamic balance, a yin and yang
where we are loose enough to be creative, yet tight enough to build
things that those who come after us can handle.
Dave
.......................................................................
FROM: STRAKER_DAVID/HP-UnitedKingdom_om1@opnmail1
TO: PODOLSKY_JOE/HP-PaloAlto_om4@opnmail1