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Scarblac 5 hours ago

I think we know how to reliably make good software. E.g. NASA manages.

The problem is that doing it like that is much too expensive and too slow for most businesses.

kayo_20211030 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

NASA is a bit of an outlier. In the 50's through the 70's any failure, particularly a failure involving the loss of a life, would have been a national catastrophe; a blow to national prestige. So, they were super careful that it didn't happen. The spent-cost was irrelevant compared to the reputational value at stake. Honestly, it was a wise investment given the operative quid pro quo in those days. Maybe they still do good software, I don't know, but I suspect that the value at risk today makes them more cost averse, and less sensitive to poor software.

"Business" runs the same calculations. I'd posit that, as a practical matter, most businesses don't want "good" software; they want "good enough" software.

pixl97 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

>and too slow for most businesses.

A lot of this is because while a 'good' business is waiting for the 'good' software to be written, some crappy business has already written the crappy software and sold it to all the customers you were depending on. In general customers are very bad at knowing the difference between good and bad software and typically buy what looks flashy or the sales people bribe them the most for.