The Bluffer's Guide To Yegge: Business Requirements R Bullsh*t

All Steve Yegge articles are awesome, but no one has time to read them. If you are at a cool party with cool people you must pretend to have read all of Yegge's stuff.

To that end, here is the bluffer's guide to his latest article:

"Business Requirements are Bullshit"

1. If development of your product involves a 'requirement gathering' step then your product is doomed
2. Only build stuff for yourself

Examples include Steven's experience building the failed HP OmniGo range of Pamtop organizer products.

Strong analogies are drawn with Warren Buffet's investment style.

To sound like you read the entire article when you did not in fact read the entire article, just say the following:

"Yeh! I'm so going to buy a mountain-bike seat extender for my grandmother too!!?"

<eom>

(If you are now compelled to read the entire article... well, don't come begging to me for a refund on your time.)

The start of today's dilbert seems closely related to that latest yegge... though it goes in a different direction. (In the picture at right I've omitted all but the relevant text)

'Shog9' on Sat, 16 Aug 2008 23:30:02 GMT, sez:

It's not the destination, it's the journey!

I got into reading Yegge after several Atwood posts summarized them, and i started to become suspicious that "Steve Yegge" wasn't just a character he'd made up to allow writing quote-packed posts without bothering to dig up real quotes - sort of a geeky Slats Grobnik.

Fortunately, this was not the case, and the bits Jeff *didn't* excerpt ended up being even better than those he did. In this day and age of self-proclaimed experts and shrill bloggers, Yegge's leisurely essays are a rare treat.

'Erez' on Sun, 17 Aug 2008 05:28:04 GMT, sez:

The Steve Yegge Rule: Given enough paragraphs, all arguments are shallow.

'lb' on Sun, 17 Aug 2008 07:18:52 GMT, sez:

@Shog9
yeh, Yegge is great.

I first got into his writing when Joel Spolsky mentioned 'Stevey' in passing back in 2006:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/08/05.html

"I sat down with a long list of nominations [For Best of Software Writing II] and worked through them. When I was done, I was extremely depressed to discover that there wasn't enough material for a whole new book, and what I did find was 50% Stevey."

The first article that made a strong impression on me was 'Execution in the Kingdom of Nouns'. Hot stuff!!

'lb' on Sun, 17 Aug 2008 09:09:46 GMT, sez:

@Shog9, again

Right -- i've now been forced to google for this 'Slats Grobnik' persona you mention.

From Wikipedia's article about one Mike Rokyo i learn:

'Like many columnists, Mike Royko created fictitious mouthpieces with whom he could "converse"; the most famous being Slats Grobnik, the epitome working class Polish-Chicagoan. Generally, the Slats Grobnik columns were two men discussing a current event in a Polish neighborhood bar. In 1973, Royko collected several columns as Slats Grobnik and Other Friends.'

Intriguing.

'Farmer Jeb' on Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:05:33 GMT, sez:

I had a "Pamtop" organiser but my friend Pam eventually complained that she found it degrading to be on all fours just so I could put a PDA on her.

name


website (optional)


enter the word:
 

comment (HTML not allowed)

All viewpoints welcome. But the right to delete any post for any reason is reserved. Don't make me do it. Comments may be republished, emailed to your loved ones or printed and used as toilet paper. Who reads this legal bit anyhow?

TimeSnapper_{Know thyself!}

TimeSnapper is a life analysis system that stores and plays-back your computer use. It makes timesheet recording a breeze, helps you recover lost work and shows you how to sharpen your act.

TimeSnapper won last year's Developer Competition at Larkware.com, and is used by over 10,000 people.