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copied!<p>For decades programmers have often spent time making software <em>worse</em> by <strong>applying practices they don't understand, rather than learning why that practice is good.</strong> The use of certain tools/keywords/frameworkes can make a programmer feel sophisticated, when they're just screwing things up. Some common examples:</p> <ul> <li>Throwing in lots of try/catch/finally blocks can make a programmer feel like they have an error handling scheme, when in fact they don't.</li> <li>Replacing sql with stored procedures can make programmers feel like they have a data access layer that magically gives them efficiency, reuseability, encapsulation, when in fact they don't.</li> <li>Using classes makes many programmers believe they're engaging in object oriented programming, when in fact they aren't (or are only scratching the surface of OO).</li> </ul> <p>This list could go on forever. This tendency has always been around and always will be, because we humans always look for shortcuts. We see this a lot with <strong>patterns</strong> now because patterns are currently popular. The root problem is the same: developers not having a respect for how complicated software development is, and thinking a blindly implemented pattern or practice is a substitute for learning and humility.</p> <p>The solution? Difficult to say. You can't go to wrong though handing a junior developer <a href="http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0735619670" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Code Complete</a> or some such, to help them understand this is all about applying principles to <em>particular situations</em>, and that great developers keep it simple.</p>

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