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In the 1950's and 1960's there emerged a fad for giving personality tests to people, and the then train those who passed to become software programmers that wou
by barnaby 15y ago
In the 1950's and 1960's there emerged a fad for giving personality tests to people, and the then train those who passed to become software programmers that would work in a factory.
A lot of the really bad practices that hit us with long-term costs come from this era... and a lot of the misconceptions we have about programmers being nerdy anti-social types come from those personality tests, because they didn't test whether you'd be a good programmer... they tested whether you would sit in a production line and push buttons repetitively without talking to others.
So... no, I don't think that a return to the factory model is the solution. It's been tried and it really did not work. I think that software is big enough of a shift that it warrants removing the traditional business hierarchies and ceremonies of authority, and to create a new model that is not the old factory model.
- eternalban 15y agoYou misunderstood "software factory" reference. The reference was to meta-programming, not a room full of factory workers :) Think Japanese robot factories.