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Archive of 2026-10-21 · About this archive · Main site

Author Topic: Blog Essay: Fortune Favors Big Turds - On Complexity in Code and Joel S.  (Read 5,755 times)

mouser

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A long an interesting read with some nice observations and some sharp elbows  ;)

Quote
Fortune Favors Big Turds
Screw The Money, This Is My Art

Donald Norman and Joel Spolsky both had their say on how you can’t sell simple software. It’s my turn to say they’re wrong because they adopt an obnoxiously true-or-false stance based on horrible examples. The situation they’re discussing is too complex to fit into a single blog post and I’m not gonna try to convince you that complexity or simplicity is better. I believe you can do both simultaneously.

I’ll also explain why their observation actually does apply in open source software, but from a completely different perspective. See, I’m gonna lure you in by ranting about Joel and how he uses his piece of shit Wasabi to build a single nasty ass bug tracking product, and then waylay you with what I think.

Original address: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=6957.0