-- From A Conversation with Joel Spolsky in ACM Queue.
There aren't many books on the state of the art in software development and software management right now, which are the kinds of things that I like to write and read about. Unfortunately, we haven't moved beyond the anecdote phase, and attempts to move beyond the anecdote phase are usually just anecdotes with statistics.
大意: 在軟體開發與管理方面, 並沒有太多書指出目前我們所在的水平與進展, 而那些主題都是我想要去寫跟閱讀的; 不幸的是, 我們還沒有跨過軼事祕聞的階段, 而且企圖越過這階段的行動大都僅止於有著統計資料的趣聞.
Part of the problem is there really isn't a science going on here, which is very frustrating. The same applies to an awful lot of business writing. It's very easy to write a book called, for example, The Starbucks Principle or The Dell Way, and just bring up a whole bunch of random anecdotes and somehow tie them together thematically and pretend that this is a real thing that you can do and be successful at.
大意: 部分的問題來自於這個領域不存在著"科學", 真是令人沮喪, 同樣的道理也出現在一拖拉庫的商業撰寫論述上, 你可以隨隨便便寫出一本書, 例如: 星巴克法則 or 戴爾的秘密, 怎麼做呢? 就把一堆故事 趣聞 跟 秘辛 收集起來, 然後依照某主題將他們綁在一起, 假裝那就是真的, 那就是你可以去做並且成功的憑藉.
And, lo and behold, another moron then is going to try to attempt the same thing in his or her own company. It doesn't work because it doesn't apply or because it didn't work in the original company, either - it's just an anecdote that somebody pulled out of thin air. That's one of the problems that this particular field has been suffering from.
大意: 你瞧, 又有個傻子想在他的公司嘗試同樣的事情, 不會成功的, 因為那些書上說的沒辦法被實施應用, 或是因為其實那些東西在原公司本來就沒有用, 在書裡的那些只不過是些趣聞祕事而已, 只不過是某個人從稀薄的空氣中榨取出來而已. 那是這個特別的領域正在承受的問題之一.
真是太棒了, 我讀了這些跟那些書還有一些其他的之後, 心裡面有個感覺, 說是說的出來, 但總是差了幾分味道, 沒有微言大意的發人省思, 而Joel就是可以做到; 嗯, 文字的力量真是可怕.
原文還談到Joel的公司, 用人哲學, 在軟體公司工作與在銀行業與娛樂業寫程式的不同, 知識型工作的不同, Web 2.0等等.
題外話
1. 大家覺得我翻的如何?
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