Post #1912127 · Elektrine

2026-04-29 07:12 UTC

@whitequark Depends on the project, I suppose, but I see a lot of cases where a "move fast and break things" dev spends more time debugging a single bug than it would've taken to chase out that whole class of bug with good testing. On the time savings thing, they can do something they want to do instead! I mean, I think almost nobody thinks this way but, in principle, someone could do this even if, in practice, people don't do this.

Replies (2)

@dotstdy@mastodon.social 2026-04-29 07:18

@danluu @whitequark there's a pretty high degree of introspection and tracking required to even make that napkin calculation, though. Most people (and I'm including myself here for the most part) don't keep track of the time they spent on things, instead preferring to guess based on how they felt during the process, and how different answers might reflect on their own ability (to both themselves and external observers). What you don't look at closely can't hurt you.

Open ##1912128
@keunwoo@indieweb.social 2026-04-29 15:50

@danluu Aren't we just talking about why humans find it hard to delay gratification? Of course good testing, like many kinds of up front investment, can save time in the long run; the "long run" here might even be next week or sooner! But not writing the test lets you push to main right now, so you grab the marshmallow.

Open ##1912152