Re: work times & accommodation @tokyo, WAS: Re: [tlug] Embedded linux dev wanting to find work in Tokyo.. Seeking advice.

[Curt Sampson <cjs@example.com>]

On 2008-07-30 14:23 +0900 (Wed), Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

>  What *you* seem to want to avoid admitting is that they might very
> well not be f*cked.

The more inefficient they are to begin with, the better a chance they
have of being able to expand quickly by just adding more people, yes.
I'm somehow not buying this as a convincing argument for going for the
lowest common denominator when hiring programmers, however.

>  > "Just double the size of the developement team and we'll get more
>  > done" is the standard managerial response for people who don't
>  > understand why software development is different from engineering
>  > or manufacturing.
> 
> And it's the correct response: twice the size of the team can do twice
> as much programming (up to variations in average productivity).

I'm speechless, especially when something like this comes from you.
Literally, I've spent the past several minutes in front of my keyboard
wondering how to respond to this.

Even the 4GL vendors and write-XML-instead-of-Java weenies claim that
they can help you do less programming, not more.

As for the, "I don't know what's going on in the bowels of Google"
thing, I'll try to stick to my commitment not to argue this any more and
just leave you with this:

Research needs to collide with the real world to actually help with real
world problems, and stuff hidden away doesn't. If it did, there are
signs you would see that it is. I'll leave it to you to figure out what
these might be and why you would be likely to notice them.

cjs
-- 
Curt Sampson       <cjs@example.com>        +81 90 7737 2974   
Mobile sites and software consulting: http://www.starling-software.com