Feb 16

Are Programmers like Tailors?

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I was chatting with someone about the clothing industry, and how there are some similarities to our profession as software developers. If you think back. When someone wanted some clothing, they would go to a tailor who would measure you up, and whip together something for you. It would take time, was expensive, but was a nice fit.

Then along came clothing manufacturers who came up with generic sizes (S,M,L,XL; 30″, 32″, …; shoe size 8,9,…). This meant that clothing got a LOT cheaper, and many people more people were able to afford certain types of clothing because of it. The one downside, is that clothes don’t fit as perfectly as when you had a professional tailor measure you! “Good enough” seems to basically work for the majority of us… and we accept the downsides.

Is the programming profession weighing up similar ideas when it comes to build vs. buy, with respect to “components” as well as products. At some point will we have components that are “good enough”, so we will not be tailors… but more like clothing designers with manufacturing?