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Discussion on: Is it good or bad practice to make developers pay money for his bugs?

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lewiscowles1986 profile image
Lewis Cowles • Edited

It is one of the stupidest policies I can think of and only seems to be a way out of paying a bill.

If you ask a dev to add two numbers, most will present you with a solution. You'll have no bugs because complexity is so low.

If you ask a dev to do something that already exists they will probably use something that exists. You'll inherit all of the bugs of that thing (and there will be bugs in EVERYTHING regardless of if your team has the brains to find them).

If you ask a dev to do something that has never existed before they may use prior work to support that (thereby inheriting the bugs), they'll be specifying new domains (and there lurk bugs because it's by it's nature new and exploratory).

If you run a business with zero bugs, you're just too stupid to work with. Too Stupid to know there are bugs and edges and places your code, processes and staff won't be the right fit because no business or person has infinite resources.

If you strip your coders of revenue, which in my experience they spend managing health, psychology, CPD (because none of your budgets are that good). How do they meet your growing list of demands?

It's as much nonsense to remove money from someone you want to keep helping you as a physical attack on them. How can they help you when you're distracting them with other nonsense?

Even if you would prefer they left and you found someone else to help you, pay them. You couldn't walk to a shop as a reasonable person (please nobody highlight yourself as a cretin) to complain that the food you ate didn't measure up to your caloric or other needs.

In life sunk costs are those it's best to forget. Don't burn your money and encourage others to, trying to work out how to burn less money. Accept it's gone and look to move on giving actionable feedback, requesting deeper insight and perhaps involvement with process.

I will never apologize for bugs. I'll never feel bad I write them, and I'll always feel good when they are discovered because it's something else to keep my mind and wallet busy. Take away either my mind or my wallet and I'll go work elsewhere. I encourage other coders towards this too!

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diegoangel profile image
Diego Rivarola

Best answer