Why is it not working?

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This newsletter is an experiment of sorts: Doc and I email each other weekly, with you lovely people bcc’d. Please hit reply if you’d like to talk to me about anything I cover below.

I've just DM'ed you and you have confirmed that our Office Hours live-stream will be a bit earlier tomorrow. 2:30pm Irish time. We really should run one later for folks in the different timezones soon. Or record them!

Anyway, I'm going to pick up on the theme you started last week, because we are still guilty coding.

Over the years, when I'm in the middle of coding and the code repeatedly doesn't work, I created a song to sing in my head. It goes like this:

Why is it not working?
Why is it not working?
Why is it not working?
Why is it not working?
Why is it not working?
Why is it not working?
Why is it not working?
Why is it not working?
Why is it not work-ing?

You probably get the gist. It's somewhat reflexive of how I feel when this happens, and this week, I'm feeling it a lot. You would think that after this happening so often that I wrote a song about it that I would lose my optimism that I'll be able to write code that will solve any problem, but I don't. I always start a new project or task with blind optimism of two indefatigable truths:

Building software is HARD. But everyone, even the people doing it, think it's easy. This leads to the wholly extraordinary scenario that we have in the modern age where almost every piece of software we use sucks in some way. Right now, the software that I'm using to write this is reloading, seemingly at random, while I'm typing, as if to berate me with this universal truth.

Building software is hard, but we think it's easy. We think small things will be quick, and we think that everyone will agree on our way of doing things. And every time we walk in optimistic, and every time shipping a new feature or paradigm is like birthing a new child into the world.

There was a confirmed Covid case in my youngest’s childcare, so they've closed the room down for around 2 weeks. This was only his fifth week and he was settling in so beautifully. He's delighted, because he gets to spend his days with his mother. My wife is not so thrilled.

Sometimes, the things we love, even our own children, are burdens that we could use a little respite from. We never stop loving them, but sometimes, just sometimes, it's nice to be free from their constant needs for just a few hours.

Building software IS hard. It's important not to forget that. It's also important to step back now and then. To realise that taking a break is ok. That there's always going to be one more feature. Even though we have the ideal in our minds, everyone is chasing the bottom of the rainbow that is perfect software. It always remains just out of reach.

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