<story><title>Our software must get better</title><url>http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2016/04/our-software-must-get-better.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>katzgrau</author><text>I dig Seth Godin a lot, but the real reason that software trends toward mediocrity over time is that the code base generally becomes an unmaintainable pile of crap. I find this this takes place over the course of years due to:&lt;p&gt;1. Tight development timelines that encourage features getting slapped in quickly at the expense of proper refactoring or architecture.&lt;p&gt;2. A shifting or unclear product spec - sometimes so dramatic that refactoring or rewriting is prohibitive (a hack is born)&lt;p&gt;3. The fact that many developers will touch the code over time. Not only will developers have differing code styles, the preferred code styles and patterns of the language and framework change over time too. The attitudes and level of commitment changes over time as original developers leave and new ones come in. If the code finally gets shipped to an outsourcing firm, you can bet that any last traces of quality are going to disappear.&lt;p&gt;This doesn&amp;#x27;t just happen at lazy or cheap firms - I&amp;#x27;ve seen projects with an incredibly strong development team devolve over time too. It can be prevented, but it happens more often than not.&lt;p&gt;PayPal? Imagine the twisted bunch of cgi they probably still have lying around in their core code base. I&amp;#x27;d be willing to bet there are still traces of Peter Thiel and Elon Musk in there, and nobody wants to touch it</text></comment>
<story><title>Our software must get better</title><url>http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2016/04/our-software-must-get-better.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>retrogradeorbit</author><text>I think the problem stems from the customer not caring about the quality of software. That combined with wanting it for nothing. They may &lt;i&gt;say&lt;/i&gt; they care about it, but when you look at their behaviour, and not at what they say, they really don&amp;#x27;t care at all. It could literally delete all their files and most would shrug and go, oh well. What are you going to do?&lt;p&gt;When software users really start to care, and are willing to put their money where their mouth is, then you will see general software quality improve.</text></comment>