Imprisoning Mort?

this is in response to http://ayende.com/Blog/archive/2007/06/20/Imprisoning-Mort.aspx

does this mean that I am bound to write unmaintainable [sic] code and should be locked down to a very small set of “safe” choices, which were chosen for me by those Above Me ?

In my experience, those often placed above me are not there because they are smarter or better. I rarely see that they make the best choices for what is “safe” code. I would say I rarely see choices that just plain don’t suck.

Why would you hire someone to write completely disposable code? If you have no faith in their ability, why hire them? Why write a tool that caters to incompetence? Why would you want to enable someone who isn’t qualified to produce products that other people will be dependent on?

It’s because MS is driven by creating the best products they can sell, not simply creating the best products. Since there are always more stupid people then smart people, the best marketing strategy is to design products that appeal to the stupid people, but can still be used by smart people. You don’t want to totally piss off the smart people. They are smart after all, even if they are in an extreme minority.