Done It Before, Stupid
One of my least favorite parts of working in the software industry was the inevitable backlash involving various parties making smug remarks about how it’s all been done before.
I think we can partially blame the braindead mentality of DRY criticism, where people get a Pavlovian kick out of trying to identify places where other people are messing up because, obviously, they are just repeating work that has already been done.
We can also partially blame the exploited patent system for enabling a view where software concepts can be claimed for power and profit. Some people in large corporations take this view inside the company, where they are likely to feel slighted if a new product seems to be close to some idea that they remember thinking about or being in a meeting about five years ago. Some people make it their full-time job to seek out people who are working on ideas similar to their own and harass them until they get their perceived due.
In software, there’s really no way to earn knowledge without writing code yourself. So please give people a break when they’re jumping through well-worn hoops, oblivious to existing codebases or ideas.
If you’re not looking back at your old code or approaches with some sense of embarrassment at improvements missed, then you haven’t grown as a creator since then. To think that previous work is unimpeachable is awfully haughty, and is a good sign that you’ve become a Crusty Old Dude(ette), or some weird profit-mongering litigator.
So, instead of hopping on the Done It Before, Stupid bandwagon, what would be more helpful?
- Use the socratic method (ask questions) about specific technical challenges that were particularly challenging to previous attempts at a problem set.
- Contribute old test suites, datasets, or programs if they’re close enough to help ensure that any new solutions get written as efficiently (or more efficiently) than old ones.
- Check out the new approaches with an open mind and try to find out what’s substantially different or new about it.
Anyway, that’s my little rant about people who claim D.I.B.S. (nudge nudge, wink wink) on ideas.
Nice article. it was an interesting perspective. I actually … did not think about it. I have come across situations where people try to do things that have already been tried and failed (in those circumstances). But that is no reason for them to pass now. Besides, if we kill ideas at their inception, they will never evolve into what they are actually meant to be. This is especially true of s/w devp. the end product is usually not like it was concieved to be. Who knows what innovations we may hit if we just start moving. Well that is a nice rant for the morning :). now I can get back to work.