"We need to stop rewriting the same things again and again (fail fast! NDAs are worthless! Execution matters, not ideas! Use the right tools for the job!)."
Couldn't agree more. I agree with these ideas 100%, but it's getting to the point where they're all beginning to feel cliched.
I've said it before and will say it again: Repeating yourself is what effective teaching is all about.
You need to say the same thing over and over to refine your own understanding and presentation. You need to do this not just once, but periodically thereafter, because the thing you believed in 2007 will be different when you restate it in 2010. Experience has taught you things since then.
You need to say the same thing over and over because students don't learn it all the first time. They, too, grow in experience over time. When I reread the things that I read twenty years ago, I see completely different nuances than I did before.
But, most importantly, you need to say the same thing over and over because most people didn't hear you the first time, and even if they did, the world keeps making more people. If nobody ever reposts or retweets the classics, they rapidly become forgotten. (And then they aren't classics anymore: The reason classics are classics is that people can't stop quoting them.)
We've "all" heard that NDAs are worthless and that execution matters... and yet prospective clients keep pulling out those crazy NDAs. We've all heard that agile development is better than waterfall... except for the thousands of programmers who are working on waterfall projects right now. We all know that there is No Silver Bullet, and yet silver bullets continue to appear and continue to be touted, almost 25 years after the original essay.
It's okay that Spolsky himself no longer feels called to the vocation of patiently teaching the same things, over and over, to new generations of programmers and entrepreneurs. That job is not for everyone, and he's got a few other things he could be doing. ;) And it's also true that the web does a miserable job of segregating the newbs from the old hands, such that it's hard to avoid hearing lessons repeated more times than you really want to. But however much Spolsky may not need to write the 18,001st restatement of No Silver Bullet, there are always going to be people who need to read it. We're never going to finish the job of teaching people. They aren't born knowing.
Well said. A corollary is that Joel was unfairly labeled a "blogger" even though he never really blogged.
A blog is a reverse chronological list of short posts. Readers often assume a kind of exponential decay of usefulness, where old blog posts are far less interesting and relevant than new ones. Consequently, tech bloggers keep posting the same content, as if to say pay attention to this, it's still important.
What we really need is a new label for content like Joel's, one that doesn't carry any negative stigma for text written long ago. I have no suggestions for what that might look like, but I have to imagine there's something better than the status quo, which is:
(1) People keep posting the same stuff, and
(2) I send around a giant, growing list of old articles to every newly minted CS graduate I meet
Not formatting exclusively as a blog might help. In Ye Olden Statick HTML Days, sites with mainly essay-like content usually had some sort of organization: by topic, by theme, by importance, or some combination. They often also had a reverse-chronological list of essays on a page called "updates" or "recent additions" or "sorted by date" or something similar, but it wasn't the only or even primary way of displaying the content, and some sites didn't have an updates page at all.
But blogs, including Joel's, display the "updates" page as if it were the main website. There are sometimes other views, like by tag, or on Joel's by topic in the sidebar, but they're positioned as clearly secondary, just pointers into the primarily-chronological blog. They aren't the default display, and posts are still prominently formatted with the date, as if they were journal entries--- on Joel's blog, the posting date is even on the same line as the title, in font that's just as big.
"I've said it before and will say it again: Repeating yourself is what effective teaching is all about.
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But, most importantly, you need to say the same thing over and over because most people didn't hear you the first time, and even if they did, the world keeps making more people. If nobody ever reposts or retweets the classics, they rapidly become forgotten."
I don't disagree with you. However, there is such a thing as overdoing it. And I feel that it's just as dangerous to do that as it is to not repeat yourself enough. After all, in saying something too many times, you're diluting your message.
Plus, posting these things on Hacker News is preaching to the choir. The companies that use NDAs probably aren't going to read hacker news. Neither are the "waterfall" developers.
For the past year at least, it's become tiring for me to even read the headlines for these kinds of articles. I've become more and more cynical as people pump out yet another logical fallacy themed blog post whose headline is carefully crafted to prompt me to get just emotional enough to click on it.
I read Hacker News out of habit now, but it's not nearly as enjoyable as it once was. Perhaps I'm just getting old, but I remember the intellectual stimulation of scouring the web for great blog posts around 2002-2004. You know, before people worried about ensuring the content was search-engine optimized, or if they'd be able to sustain the Slashdot (or I suppose Digg/Reddit) effect. There was something special there and people seem to have lost it as they rushed to implement Google Analytics and ensure that their readership kept growing.
you can consume a blogpost in about a minute, maybe two. during an hour lunch break you can probably finish 20-30 posts. I found that the internet really isn't that big. There's only so many ways to way NoSQL > Sql , or scaffolding is the second coming of Christ, or how to give your VC the perfect handjob.
Even with a billion or two people available to you on the net, there just isn't all that much unique stuff. Ya, you've got 5 reasons your startup failed, but they always boil down to "My cofounder didn't work as hard/wasn't as smart as me/I should have listened to PG."
The internet itself has basically revealed itself to be 1) A great way to buy books, 2) a replacement for your encyclopedia and 3) porn.
The concept that the internet has "more" ideas is bunk. There are just more people.
Please DO NOT overexercise a puppy. It is common for people to start exercising puppies way to much early on. They will happily keep themselves busy and tend to exercise quickly and then sleep quite a bit. Puppies need time to grow and their bones harden properly. That is why bigger breed dogs are put on a slower growth puppy formula. You want to avoid causing any hip issues that will be very tough on them later in life.
Please do read some of the better authors on the subject and acceptable levels of exercise for the next 12 months.
The nice thing is there is a huge backlog of articles by Joel to refresh on or read for the first time. I frequently get lost in his cross-linked articles like so many people do with Wikipedia.
I know you'll still be around, Joel, but thanks for what you've done this far.
Yes I actually felt a bit sad as I read that "last blog post" - remembering back to when I first came across the essays. I also enjoy the podcast, I hope that continues on in some form.
But I agree with and appreciate the need to do something different - good on you Joel - and thanks for everything. And don't let the VC's eat your soul (unless for a very good price - puppies can get expensive quickly).
I think you may be overestimating just how much exercise your average husky requires.
Yes, I'm aware that huskies in the Iditarod do that much running. But frankly, those dogs are athletes, burn ~11,000 calories per day [1] and would break very quickly if you expected them to do that indefinitely.
Joel, if you need to use a 'day care' to facilitate looking after a dog, you shouldn't have gotten him in the first place. Sorry, but that's not how it works.
The comment originally started wtih "Honestly, fuck you." And had a few ranting paragraphs, but instead, here you go:
I adopted a dog and i don't exercise him nearly enough. The other option? He'd be dead. Fucking dead at two months old because people like you think animals need the perfect life.
Pretty much every time there's a discussion of dogs on the internet there'll always be at least one guy who pipes up and tells you you're a monster because you haven't sold your house, moved to the country, bought a farm and spent all day carving statues of the dog out of marble.
It's quite annoying given that there's a lot worse that can happen to a dog than being owned by an attentive and intelligent owner in less than ideal circumstances.
I've been taking my dog to daycare since she was six months old. She gets far more attention and exercise throughout the day than anyone with a day job or kids to watch could provide. And - though I'm biased =) - I don't think you could find a better behaved or more pleasant dog. She's so eager to leave for daycare each morning, I think that at this point it would crush her not to go.
I've been very skeptical of twitter from the beginning, but as time goes some people are emerging that have figured out how to take advantage of the medium. The first is shitmydadsays, who manages to fit a lot of context into 140 characters, the second is Michael Jordan (probably not the real Micheal Jordan) who's great at some bite-sized non-sequitor humor.
I would like to say thanks for the great essays over the years. I started reading back in college before joelonsoftware.com existed (even exchanged email with Joel back in 1999 or 2000 or something) and his writing turned me on to a lot of great ideas and books that I've learned a lot from.
I wasn't sure what Joel's reason for giving up the blog would be, but I agree that not wanting to re-hash the conventional wisdom is a good reason.
I look forward to seeing what's in store for the next 10 years.
Hey! I think this my first front-page post on HN. So one more thing to thank Joel for.
I expect this to be the start of a water fall, the baby boomers of the blogosphere. Blogs are hard work and a successful one is a full-time job. I would be more worried if Joel continued to keep it up. (I'm not buying the dog excuse though)
That said there should be a graveyard for old blowhards. An invite only site where we can send our stalwarts who can lend a post or two a year. Collectively there would be no pressure to post but we could keep their insight on life support.
It would be nice if he went back and updated some posts from 5-10 years ago, or maybe I'm just young and actually believe that things have changed in that time. :D
Joel, I just wanted to say that despite the fact the evidence suggests you are an intelligent person and I know nothing more about your position than the fact you have a puppy, I want to join the horde of people ensuring that we stick our nose in your business to remind you (since nobody else has) that dogs need to be fed rather a lot for optimum health (once every two days just doesn't cut it in my experience). They also require water, and unfortunately despite my best efforts most of the food and water just comes out again several hours later. No, despite what you think you can't seem to just reuse the stuff that comes out. I'm not certain if you were aware of these things so let me call you out in public as someone who doesn't.
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Jeez, people, lay off with the dog advice already. You don't know enough about the situation to advise meaningfully.
bugs' repeated comments being a perfect case in point. I know this entire subject is hardly HN material, but both myself and the vet sitting beside me would like you all to know that:
bugs repeated advice on exercise would, if applied, make sure that Joel's dog leads a short, uncomfortable life due to the kind of overexercise that compounds the kinds of hip problems that already lead to shortened lives in large breed dogs even when exercised properly. Do NOT overexercise a puppy. Especially a large breed puppy.
That said, don't take advise from the internet. Not even mine. Not even if it is from the vet sitting next to me since, while she may be a vet, this is still the internet. Talk to your own vet about what is right for your dog.
Not to belabor the point, but I know a lot of otherwise intelligent people get working dog breeds without being adequately prepared to handle their need for stimulation and exercise. I care about the welfare of animals and hate to see people get puppies recklessly. It's not "your business" if your choices involve the mistreatment of animals.
I'm happy to hear that Joel knows what he's doing, and apparently has a ridiculously big apartment. :) However, if a comment in this thread makes anyone think twice about getting a husky puppy, then it was worth it IMO. Sorry if those statements come off as nosy, that's not really the intent.
I don't really know all that much about Joel but huskies can behave pretty well indoors with supervision as long as those guidelines are met (exercise and training) but if the apartment is small the exercise is going to have to make up for it in time and amount.
I have had huskies that could and would run for hours on end with no sign of slowing (as they should be able to) and currently have a husky akita mix that takes full reign of five acres.
Couldn't agree more. I agree with these ideas 100%, but it's getting to the point where they're all beginning to feel cliched.