Slightly Off KIlter

I read Richard Gabriel’s The Rise of “Worse is Better” several years ago on the recommendation of my then-manager. He recommended a number of interesting essays, many of which I have collected and saved.

I don’t keep a pointer to “Worse is Better”. I didn’t like the essay when I read it; from the title to the content, it struck a bad chord with me. Worse is never better.

Recently, Jim Waldo produced his own essay, entitled “Worse is worse”, which clarifies my thinking about (and my objections to) Richard Gabriel’s “Worse is better”. I’m thankful to Jim for putting his insights down on e-paper; I’ve added “Worse is worse” to my collected Software Engineering papers.

One of our favorite quotes comes from Rob Kolstad:

Better isn’t always Better, but Better is always Different.

Perhaps the same can be said of “worse”.