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mattnewport comments on Open Thread: March 2010, part 2 - Less Wrong
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I disagree!
A (real) novice programmer's number one worry should be getting paid. Why should they divert their attention and spend extra effort on writing maintainable code, just so you have an easier time afterward? That's awfully selfish advice.
You might claim writing maintainable code will pay off for them, but to properly evaluate that we need to weigh the marginal utilities. What's better, an extra hour improving the maintainability of your code, or an extra hour spent empathizing with the client? Ummm... And you can't say both of those things are first priority, that's not how it works. I've been coding for money for half of my life so listen to my words, ye lemmings: ship the thing, make the client happy, get paid. That's number one. Maintainability ain't number one, it ain't even in the top ten.
That depends on your incentive structure. You may well be right if you work as a contract programmer. If you work as a salaried employee in a large company the calculation could look different.
Yes, absolutely. The former path (working or contracting for many small companies) is the one I'd heartily recommend to novices. The latter path... scares me.
Maybe you are scared because you are aware that writing maintainable code is harder than writing code without that constraint?
I write maintainable code anyway, and I'm friends with several people who maintain my past code and don't seem to complain. No, working at BigCo scares me because it tends to be a very one-sided activity. Employees at small companies and contractors face much more variety in what they have to do every day.