Comments on: Million dollar cutoff for software technique http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2008/01/11/million-dollar-cutoff-for-software-technique/ The blog of John D. Cook Sat, 11 Feb 2012 22:42:11 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Appropriate scale — The Endeavour http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2008/01/11/million-dollar-cutoff-for-software-technique/comment-page-1/#comment-72679 Appropriate scale — The Endeavour Wed, 23 Mar 2011 13:33:29 +0000 http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2008/01/11/million-dollar-cutoff-for-software-technique/#comment-72679 [...] scales Million dollar software technique Scaling the number of projects ? [...] [...] scales Million dollar software technique Scaling the number of projects ? [...]

]]> By: Aaron http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2008/01/11/million-dollar-cutoff-for-software-technique/comment-page-1/#comment-13564 Aaron Thu, 19 Feb 2009 01:51:03 +0000 http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2008/01/11/million-dollar-cutoff-for-software-technique/#comment-13564 I like the theoretical $1M cutoff, though I'd bring it lower because I'm not good at grasping complexity. But if you hired 5 good programmers for a year at $100,000 each (or any other equivalent ratio of programmers multiplied by time)* you'd probably need to introduce that degree of abstraction. However, the curious thing is that if you spend only 20% less, you'd get a much lower quality programmer, like me, who can't manage without the abstraction, and would take about 20% longer to get the job done. And if you go 10% lower still, you'd probably have programmers who can't handle the abstraction. *and burn the other $500,000 on overhead and marketing. I like the theoretical $1M cutoff, though I’d bring it lower because I’m not good at grasping complexity.

But if you hired 5 good programmers for a year at $100,000 each (or any other equivalent ratio of programmers multiplied by time)* you’d probably need to introduce that degree of abstraction.

However, the curious thing is that if you spend only 20% less, you’d get a much lower quality programmer, like me, who can’t manage without the abstraction, and would take about 20% longer to get the job done. And if you go 10% lower still, you’d probably have programmers who can’t handle the abstraction.

*and burn the other $500,000 on overhead and marketing.

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