Re:Shovelling crap (Score 1)

"Late and right beats on time and crap every time -- or at least, it should."

This resonates with me. I wish the world worked this way. However, it doesn't seem to.

The way the world really works is described by Richard Gabriel in his paper usually called Worse is Better but which is really called "Lisp: Good News, Bad News, How to Win Big". If you want to make the world a better place then you need to know how it works. Otherwise, your attempts to change it will be futile. Most software development methods ignore the lessons of "Worse is Better". One method that pays close attention, and still manages to deliver quality software, is Extreme Programming. Extreme Programming does not work in every situation (for example, it requires small teams) but it handles market pressures well and pays very close attention to users.