Show Me the Code

"Talk is cheap. Show me the code." - Linus Torvalds

This is one of my favorite quotes to sometimes invoke when I'm around other software people. It essentially decries any reliance on theory when developing something. Instead of spending so much time talking about making something, it's best to just do it. A project can get so tangled up in diagrams, meetings, and other forms of red tape. Sometimes, it's best to just write the code to get an idea of what needs to be done. Planning for what needs to be done can lead to unrealistic expectations when there is no concrete evidence of what can be done.

However, I think it is possible to take this to an extreme. Why do any planning at all? Just write the code and be done with it. That's not necessarily what it's supposed to mean. Thinking is an important aspect of programming. Before you go to the keyboard to write something, you need to have an idea of what you are going to write. In this age of artificial intelligence it's a lot easier to dive into coding right away. As you're typing, you can ask a chat bot how to do something. That turns into the code being written for you, and you can learn how the robot did it if you spend some effort to read through the code. On the flip side, you could build your entire code base off of what the robot generated, and when it breaks, you'll have no idea how to fix it. You'll just have to ask the robot to fix it for you.

This is where the "sometimes" comes it. It's important to think as a software engineer. People have brains so that they can plan, calculate, read, and then write. While going in guns blazing can be great way to learn for beginners, the better, more seasoned developers know what they're going to do before they even grab a gun. They have an idea of the code that they have to write before even getting to the keyboard, either by reading documentation or mapping it out in some sort of diagram.

Some times I can't just take talk, though. I just want people to get straight to the point. Many people like to meander around their ideas, talking about their own lives more than the point they're actually trying to express. This is one of the other reasons why I like this quote; it's simple, elegant, and to the point. I know not everything can be simple all of the time. Some people just like to hear their own voice. I'm sure I rant some times, too. Heck, I'm ranting right now, and you're reading it!