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Re:Ask HN: Is it better to be quick generalist or a slow spe... by scrapheap on Thursday August 25, 2022 @06:43AM (#32591941)
If it's a one off task then doing a bodge may get the manager the result they want quickest. However, managers don't want just the one task completing quickly they want a series of task to consistently be completed quickly. So let's take this into account and compare Programmer A (who regularly bodges things to get them out the door as quickly as possible) to Programmer B (who takes a bit of extra time on each task to keep the codebase maintainable)

As time goes on those bodges Programmer A is making will accumulate in the code and make it harder and harder to make changes and each new task takes longer to complete.

Programmer B on the other hand will find the code in a good state that's easy to change so each will be able to deliver tasks at a steady maintainable rate.

Of course if Programmer A is going to make a couple of changes and then leave the project there's no incentive for them to do anything other than bodges, that why we have things like code reviews so that those programmers who are going to be on a project long term can spot the bodges before they get into the live codebase.

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