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Comment by jrumbut | Hacker News Reader

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jrumbut·

I wonder how the workers in the OP would react to being able to leave early if they finished a set amount of work.

"If we can get X,Y, and Z done you can take Friday off."

Maybe the appetite for adding complexity would decrease.

It wouldn't work for every instance of this problem but I'd be curious if anyone has tried it.

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In my experience, a less complex but more thought-through solution often requires more time to implement. It's easy to just stick more layers onto a big ball of mud, but it takes excellence to change it such that these layers aren't necessary.

> Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte. (I have made this letter longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter.)

~ Blaise Pascal, Lettres Provinciales (1657)

Or more generally, how does doing the simple low complexity thing benefit them? If you are a manager who wants your reports to just do the work that makes your job easier and you look good then you are in for a long hard road in most corporate environments.

This is a better formulation of what I was getting at.

If you have someone who can do the work, there is a lot to be gained from trying to fix the incentives because capable developers don't grow on trees.

It also sounds like a pretty good way to incentivize sloppiness, but I guess it might work if X,Y,Z are very clearly defined, including tests (and their quality), documentation (and its quality), and what not.

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