Sasha Pachev wrote:
I argue that you produce better code in the long run without deadlines and stress. I am not against competition - I am just against the unhealthy approach to it. I am no stranger to competition at all, as you probably know. When I run, I run to win. And there is one thing I know - the more pressure you put on yourself, the faster you will go in the first 30% of the race. And the slower your end time is going to be :-) Patience pays off.While I usually can produce better code without deadlines and stress, the code I do end up producing is already obsolete! In other words, the need for whatever I'm working on has largely passed. This is the story of my own personal projects!
Michael
Now software is a little different than running. Natural laws do not matter as much for the perceived success as your ability to create that perception. So the natural laws of producing quality code are often compromised in the artificial competition - the competition to impress. Unfortunately, the end result is that you end up with a lot of products that are very impressive on the outside, and that is about where it ends.
So my contention is that the best way to produce software is to have team of gifted programmers that like to program, give them an idea of what you want, and then leave them alone. If you have the right team, they will get it done, and come up with something much better than you hoped for. In the open source world, such teams form naturally, and they produce really well. Kind of like wild berries. What I am suggesting is that perhaps those berries would grow even better if you gave them some good soil.
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