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rebelutionary / 2.0
The evils of "just" in software development
We had a very interesting turnaround meeting (our "bastardisation" of the standup meeting) this morning in which the team decided to outlaw the word "just" and the phrase "pretty much". The contexts are sentences like "To finish X, I just have to do A, B, C" or "I've pretty much finished X except A, B, C".
These are evil words!
I have evidence (nicely collected by Charles)
'Just' is a four letter word by Charles himself:
'Just' is a vague, almost condescending diminutive. Nine times out
of ten, it means this: 'I do not know, but it is in my interest to estimate optimistically.'
I said, 'Soon.' And what that means is..." She looked at me, and I
nodded. "I think it meant, 'I don't know, but don't keep bothering me.'"
It's rare that a complex problem has a simple solution, or that the simple solution doesn't have far-ranging side effects.
All highly recommended reading for any software developer - "just" trust me.
(PS the credit for this entry and the research is Charles' - I'm just merely spreading the word more widely!)
Comments
When I ask "is X done?" and I get back “Yeah, it's done, I just have to do Y and Z," I say "so, the answer is no."
Nice collection of links (if I do say so myself. :-))
Does a turnaround meeting involve swivel chairs?
Yep. It's what you get when all your desks are arranged in a square, everyone has swivel chairs, and you're too lazy to stand up.
That makes a certain amount of sense. The point of standing up for a standup meeting is to ensure that participants are slightly uncomfortable, keeping the meeting short. I suppose that getting everybody dizzier and dizzier would keep a turnaround meeting short. We'll have to try it.
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