<story><title>Clear is better than clever [pdf]</title><url>https://dave.cheney.net/paste/clear-is-better-than-clever.pdf</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>saagarjha</author><text>Working on personal projects, not having to conform to other people’s requirements, trying a bunch of cool hacks and getting to see how things &lt;i&gt;really&lt;/i&gt; work…that’s the most fun part of programming!</text></item><item><author>designcode</author><text>I’d say it’s in fact where the real fun happens</text></item><item><author>auggierose</author><text>&amp;gt; To be clear, I don’t mean to dismiss the work of a lone programmer toiling on programs without anyone to pair with or learn from. I’ve been that person many times in my career as a programmer, it’s not fun.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d say it&amp;#x27;s a lot of fun.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nly</author><text>The difference is the &amp;#x27;personal project&amp;#x27; bit. If you &lt;i&gt;have to&lt;/i&gt; do something, because it&amp;#x27;s for work and there&amp;#x27;s a deadline, then the fun hacks produce a general feeling of unease, uncertainty, and of not doing ones job properly.&lt;p&gt;At work myself i work mostly in isolation on codebases that have been in maintenance mode for years, where the original authors have typically either left the company or moved to another dept, and where there is almost no documentation. Everything is hacks and exploratory work, but it sure ain&amp;#x27;t fun. Adding relatively uninteresting small changes can take days or weeks.&lt;p&gt;Working on a broad and deep project as half of a pair is my preferred working mode so far in my career.</text></comment>
<story><title>Clear is better than clever [pdf]</title><url>https://dave.cheney.net/paste/clear-is-better-than-clever.pdf</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>saagarjha</author><text>Working on personal projects, not having to conform to other people’s requirements, trying a bunch of cool hacks and getting to see how things &lt;i&gt;really&lt;/i&gt; work…that’s the most fun part of programming!</text></item><item><author>designcode</author><text>I’d say it’s in fact where the real fun happens</text></item><item><author>auggierose</author><text>&amp;gt; To be clear, I don’t mean to dismiss the work of a lone programmer toiling on programs without anyone to pair with or learn from. I’ve been that person many times in my career as a programmer, it’s not fun.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d say it&amp;#x27;s a lot of fun.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>boyter</author><text>Oddly enough I find the collaboration more interesting now. Not sure if that’s a getting older thing but I like managing the PR’s, ensuring code is of a high quality and serving the needs of the users.</text></comment>