I Want to Be a Duct Tape Programmer
I think people misinterpreted Joel Spolsky's post "The Duct Tape Programmer" (not the best choice of words because of the connotations of using duct tape as a "temporary quick fix" in the developer's mind) but there is one key gem to take away from it.
"Shipping is a feature. A really important feature. Your product must have it"
His point is the same that most of his posts say (and even what the 37Signals guys tout). No one gives a flying fig about how your application uses the latest programming language (or UI engine). What they care about is whether your product solves their problem?
You can spend all day spit shining your API to make it more SOLID, or you can say "the feature works, let's move on to the next one". In the mean time, the company down the road who knows how to get things done has shipped v1 and are getting feedback from customers for V2.
He also makes the distinction between the guy who can pull this off and everyone else. This is the guy who uses techniques at which he is an expert (in the Dreyfus Model sense of the word) to tackle the task at hand rather than saying "here’s this new wrench (language/Framework) let's see how I can use it on this go cart (enterprise app/web browser) I'm working on." Or to bring it home better would you prefer a surgeon performing an experimental technique on you that he watched some guy perform at a seminar last week when the one he has performed 100 times over will work just as well? That's what Joel means when he says duct tape programming. It might not be made of the shiny new state of the art experimental components. But it sure as hell works like a charm.
No where in the talk did he mention throwing out best practices (okay he does mention not needing unit tests but he also mentions that those were extreme circumstances). In fact he suggests what should be a new best practice: don’t use something you’re not familiar with when your ass is on the line.
I know a few people I would apply the Duct Tape Programmer label to but they would be too modest to accept it. And that’s what I aspire to be.