Did anyone really read this till the end? If your conclusion is that the best programming advice the author ever got was to “stay the hell out of other people’s code” please try to read it again... that was exactly the opposite of what he meant. Best advice I ever got: always read things ten times before responding.
> “Actually it was terrible advice, advice that I've gone out of my way to ignore in the years since. But those words were valuable nevertheless, and I've gone back to them time and again.
Every time some annoying new-hire comes to me with a dumb idea that is obviously not going to work, Stay the Hell out of other people's code plays back in my head and I listen harder.
Every time some other engineer has an opinion about my code, I remember what I thought of the idea that you should mind your own technical business and I try to disengage my ego.”
True, but with so many people with reading problems, it would behoove any author to state his thesis simply and plainly in the first paragraph, in straight text, with no sarcasm, allegory or metaphor. Otherwise you run the danger of bringing upon us another Waterfall^1 situation. When giving advice that could be read and acted upon by managers, please try to make your text's meaning resilient against shortening. That is, it should be possible to cut out any amount from the end of the text and end up with either the intended meaning or no meaning.
^1 - The original Waterfall paper describes Waterfall as what NOT to do, but this becomes apparent about halfway through and then goes to suggest something very close to Agile. Unfortunately, if you just read the start of the paper, maybe if you're a pressed for time manager, all you're left with is an impression of how great Waterfall is.
I know, and it's not even like it's a long article. They must have got to that sentence and then just rage quit or something.
It amuses me, but I won't say I've never done it myself, particularly when I'm already tired and irritable, and I'm reading a piece by an author who's taken a provocative stance without quickly getting to the point. Tough to make that accusation stick here though.
> “Actually it was terrible advice, advice that I've gone out of my way to ignore in the years since. But those words were valuable nevertheless, and I've gone back to them time and again.
Every time some annoying new-hire comes to me with a dumb idea that is obviously not going to work, Stay the Hell out of other people's code plays back in my head and I listen harder.
Every time some other engineer has an opinion about my code, I remember what I thought of the idea that you should mind your own technical business and I try to disengage my ego.”