What is it like to be a programmer?
Big-company software development is in many ways a lot like a good extended solid drunk. It all begins with grins and laughter and free rounds for everybody. The four-beer tongues fly loose and lecherous, and everyone’s got big crazy plans that seem like easy money to everyone in the joint. After a while, the punks turn angry, and the sugars spurn them to take offense at every little quip and turn. Nobody likes a mean drunk, so the place divides up into gangs, and the turf battles begin. It’s at about this stage that the latecomers show up. Alfred Brooks theorized that adding more programmers to a late project makes it later. He said it was because getting one new developer up to speed took away an experienced one. I say it’s because all these stragglers get into clumsy fistfights with the bastards who dumped all the work on ’em. They spend the first few beers getting caught up with the rabble, but after that they are consumed with hate. “Look what those fuckers dumped on me! How can y
