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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: can.politics,net.women
Subject: Re: opportunities, women
Message-ID: <5865@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 10-Aug-85 18:47:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.5865
Posted: Sat Aug 10 18:47:43 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Aug-85 18:47:43 EDT
References: <5642@utzoo.UUCP> <896@mnetor.UUCP> <5788@utzoo.UUCP>, <16067@watmath.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 21

> ...  I see this
> defeatist attitude in software design all the time -- people don't stop
> to figure out what they really need; they only think ahead to what they
> can program in time...

Nor, of course, do they stop to think that they might be better off not
trying to solve the problem at all.  When somebody is in a panic to solve
a problem and asks you for advice, it is very hard to convince them that
it's worth their while to study the situation a bit more first.  They keep
insisting that the problem is so urgent that they have no time for anything
but a frontal assault, even in cases where a less direct approach would
get better results and still meet their deadlines.

Also, a point of clarification:  I wasn't saying "this should not be done
because it can't be done perfectly", I was saying "this should not be done
because it can't be done satisfactorily".  This is the difference between
settling for reasonable although suboptimal results, and making an awful
mess to no useful purpose.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry