<story><title>Just don’t</title><url>https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2022/11/07/Just-Dont</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>KIFulgore</author><text>Funny... my roommates and I used &amp;quot;just&amp;quot; for comedic effect in college.&lt;p&gt;I was stuck writing an algorithm and asked my more-experienced roommate for help. He briefly scanned my code and said, &amp;quot;well, you kind of just... code it.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I looked at him quizzically and just blurted, &amp;quot;straight up?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Yep, just straight up code it.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Then we all laughed at the absurdity. He wasn&amp;#x27;t trying to trivialize the problem, to be clear, but didn&amp;#x27;t know exactly how to express what he was thinking. But that became our standard answer to any programming challenge. &amp;quot;Just straight up code it.&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>JackFr</author><text>I had an office mate, who after our abusive and demeaning boss would leave our office, would quote Gene Hackman from Superman III: “I ask you to kill Superman, and you&amp;#x27;re telling me you couldn&amp;#x27;t even do that one, simple thing.”&lt;p&gt;(Sometimes if she was still in earshot he would say it in Spanish which somehow made it even funnier.)</text></comment>
<story><title>Just don’t</title><url>https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2022/11/07/Just-Dont</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>KIFulgore</author><text>Funny... my roommates and I used &amp;quot;just&amp;quot; for comedic effect in college.&lt;p&gt;I was stuck writing an algorithm and asked my more-experienced roommate for help. He briefly scanned my code and said, &amp;quot;well, you kind of just... code it.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I looked at him quizzically and just blurted, &amp;quot;straight up?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Yep, just straight up code it.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Then we all laughed at the absurdity. He wasn&amp;#x27;t trying to trivialize the problem, to be clear, but didn&amp;#x27;t know exactly how to express what he was thinking. But that became our standard answer to any programming challenge. &amp;quot;Just straight up code it.&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sixhobbits</author><text>I remember a meeting at FAANG where there was a bunch of discussion about a difficult problem and then a higher-up manager stopped the conversation to interject with&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Guys, we&amp;#x27;re thinking about this in the wrong way. The solution is to just get the right people together into a room and build the solution.&lt;p&gt;Which was definitely true but also not useful.</text></comment>