Less Art, More Basics

One of the most fascinating things about software development is just how easy it is for people to get away with being called professionals, while producing code with a quality only marginally better than what I could get from a well-trained chimpanzee, and in half the time.  It's true, to an extent, that software development and design is both an art and a science.  There are often several ways to achieve a given goal, and the trade-offs between some of the options can sometimes come down to a matter of personal preference.  On the other hand, unlike expressing oneself through a painting or a poem, there are, in fact, wrong ways to write code.

To extend the art analogy, one cannot write a poem in a language one has not learned.  There is an art to choosing the words you use, but to choose them artistically, you must first possess a certain level of fluency in the language.  Likewise with software, the artistic portion really should only be happening when you are decidedly strong in the basics of the code, and it should mostly be happening at the design level, not by individual implementors.  Producing working, bug-free software in a predictable period of time requires discipline and a methodical effort.  Getting creative with the code nearly always leads to long delays and more bugs.

Back to Greatness

The economy here in the US isn't what it used to be.  Depending on where you are in the great pecking order, you may be out of a job, or you may be earning the same amount as you have been for the last three years, while your expenses have grown, or you may be one of the lucky sorts who are still on the rise.  Regardless of where you fall, though, the signs are there for anyone who wants to see them.  The value of the dollar is falling, the federal deficit is so large, most of us can't truly envision what numbers on that scale even mean, and unemployment is lingering at dangerously high levels.

Everybody knows this, and it seems like everybody even has their own ideas about how to fix it.  "Tax the rich!" some say, "They can afford it!"  Others call for the dismantling of government programs, rallying together with cries of "Smaller Government, Less Taxes!"  Unfortunately, most of these ideas aren't going address the real issues that we face.  America once led the world in industry, technology, and finance.  Now, we struggle to keep pace, clinging to our old position of leadership like a horror movie victim being dragged through a doorway, watching it slip from our grasp.

So, what happened?  What went wrong?  Well, a great many things, over a rather long period of time.  But one big change happened in our society, along the way.  America became great because the people made it great.  The citizens of this country didn't wait for someone to come along and fix things.  If they saw something that needed doing, they did it.  They took pride in their town, their state, their nation, and strove to make it better, as individuals.  They didn't walk by a hungry man on the street, and think "Someone should help him out.", they bought him a meal, or helped him find a job to provide a steady income. 

Today, everyone seems to think the government should be solving these problems.  And, at least in part, it has to be that way.  Nobody but the government can reduce the national debt.  Nobody but the government can bring our brave men and women home from foreign wars.  But the attitudes of the average citizen need to change, as well.  We need to stop asking Washington to fix everything, and just get up and fix it.  We have, as a nation, forgotten how to become great, because we've been there for so long, the journey is forgotten.  Like an apex predator faced with the introduction of a competing predator, we've lost our skills in competing, because we've been devoid of real competition for so long.  We need to stop complaining about our schools, and get involved in making them better ourselves.

That includes the way our government is run, as well.  We need to hold our elected leaders to account for what they have done during their term, whether it's the local town council and their failure to fix the roads, or a member of the Senate who, despite claiming to be opposed to having our troops in Iraq, continues to vote to authorized funding to keep them there.

America can be great again, as it once was, but only if we choose to make it great, each one of us.