08.25.08
your permanent record
Jesus Christ, I just got out of an hour-long conference call. Three project managers, another developer, and myself. The take-away from the meeting? “Move the javascript on these pages to two external files. We’ll deliver the files to you by the end of the week.” That’s it. That’s the whole message. The whole enchilada. We probably burned through about $600 worth of billable hours on that call.
Worse: the message was directed at me. I was called into this project to analyze some code that was written and abandoned by some cut-rate Chinese HTML shop. For my trouble, and the two intelligent questions I managed to come up with, I got a patronizing 60 minute lecture that basically went: “It’s good to separate your code into reusable libraries. It’s easier to maintain. When you have to maintain your code, it’s easier to work on a single library file. For good maintenance. In an external file. Which is your library. Which is easier to update and maintain. I can walk you through how to do that if you need, it’s just a really good idea and good practice. Attaboy, junior.”
I’m willing to eat crow from time to time, if it’s for the good of the company or the account, even if it’s someone else’s crow. I’m just worried that my name is in some permanent company record now. It’ll get filed away, and if I should ever apply for a job with the other vendor or one of their partners, this little flag will come up: *DOES NOT KNOW BASIC CODING PRACTICES*. Right next to the picture of me in the third grade, picking up a dog by the hind legs and pushing it around like a vacuum cleaner.