JJB Blog

About Kim has some interesting thoughts on how attitudes toward bugs in software vary from programmer to programmer, and why this is okay.

…different people have different tolerances for small problems like this, and it can be very difficult not to look down on people whose tolerance level is different from your own. For example, if someone spends two weeks hunting down some small problem that seems mostly irrelevant to you, then it can seem like that person is being inefficient and wasting their time. But on the other hand, if they blithely ignore what seem to you to be worrying indications of instability, then it can seem like they’re being sloppy and unprofessional.

I think the thing to realize is that when someone has a different tolerance level for problems like these, you need to realize that it really is just a matter of taste. If you’re their manager, then you should encourage them to change their tolerance level in order to be more in line with the rest of the team, but you have to be careful not to just dismiss them as being a slob, or an idler.

ShareThis