© Photographer Remigiusz Oprzadek | Agency: Dreamstime.com
Laziness is a good thing.
Yes, you heard me.
And I stand by it, even after decrying laziness in other posts. The laziness I object to is lazy thinking, and short-term focus. The laziness that I support is long term laziness. And that takes a bit of effort up front.
I believe it's a good thing, because it motivates good design and quality work. I like building things. Once I finish something, I want to move on to something new. I don't want to be bogged down by old stuff. The best way to achieve that is to make sure whatever I build doesn't break five minutes later.
I guess this has been ingrained in me because I've spent my professional career in various in-house IT departments. Whatever I put out there is being used by my work colleagues, people I meet every day in the office. If I do a poor job, it comes back to haunt me. I can't escape it.
So this comes out as a strong will to make sure my work is useable, does the job it's meant to do, and will run as trouble-free as possible for as long as possible.
What's more, when the inevitable change requests come, they should be driven by new business needs rather than the need to fix something that isn't working quite right, and the code should be a pleasure to unwrap and modify.
Do it once, do it right.
Yes, the right kind of laziness is a good thing.
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14 comments:
I hope you're sending all these posts to Microsoft. They apparently aren't aware of any of this.
mood
Moody Writing
HA! What Mooderino said. Maybe you could use all these posts and do some lectures for Microsoft. :)
You haven't started coding yet?
No.
Why not?
I'm normalizing the database.
Huh?
:D
I'm same as you. But it seems less and less of the world is concerned with getting it right.
mood, Jean, aah, but you're forgetting, they know what we want better than we do ourselves! :)
Diane, wait? What? My project's progress is being measured by lines of code written, so get on with it!
M Pax, that is sadly true in many walks of life, not just software.
You must be from Europe where they take siestas during the middle of the day.
I kid I kid. I see where you are coming from.
I like your kind of laziness...and your motto..."do it right the first time".
LOL. I wish. :D
If I ever got paid for lines of code, my comments would contain my textbook explanation of my design and my thesis on why I agree it is so awesome. Unless, of course, analysts have figured out how to access the source code and count lines minus the comments. :(
Michael, that's sooo Mediterranean, not for the stiff-upper-lip Brits :) But I do enjoy a siesta from time to time.
Delores, I have a passionate dislike for going back to correct mistakes. It's an advantage sometimes, but makes it difficult when it comes to writing.
Moderation is the key to laziness.
http://joycelansky.blogspot.com
Your connection between laziness, through lazy thinking, to doint a job right first time was somewhat tenuous, but an amusing post none-the-less. Visiting from A=Z
I don't think your kind of laziness exists in America. Except, of course, in its cats as evidenced by the picture at the top.
Joyce, moderation and purposeful laziness I think is the key.
Lizy, interesting that you should think so. I find the connection extremely close, but maybe the lazy thinking bit diverted you.
Inger, Not sure about America but I think it's present in Canada. Mike Holmes espouses it perfectly, and there must be folks like him down there too. And cats are a law unto themselves.
Laziness is a great thing and ...I have it in my genes :)> I had to fight it all my life, it's hard really.
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