Where Are The Wise Men?

Mike's Ramblings

Hoss Dreams of Software

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The other night we watched Jiro Dreams Of Sushi which I highly recommend everyone watch, even if you don’t like sushi. Even if you don’t know anything about sushi. Because it’s not about sushi — it’s about Jiro, an artist who is obsessed about quality, and his craft. And his craft is making sushi.

Jiro Ono is 85 years old and owns a nondescript sushi restaurant in Tokyo. His restaurant only has 10 seats, but it costs $300 per seat and you have to make your reservations at least a month in advance. Oh, and it is a 3-star Michelin rated restaurant. Jiro is, in face, the oldest chef to be awarded a 3-star Michelin award. The restaurant reviewer interviewed in the film said, many times, that Jiro’s sushi is the consistently the best he’s ever had. It’s always the best — never was there a time a bit worse than the other. And that is an astounding review. This all has to do with Jiro, who has committed his entire life to making sushi. Meaning, he’s been at this since he’s been 14 years old. He’s at his restaurant every day, overseeing the preparation of the fish, rice, eggs, etc. He will quickly give a criticism when he sees or tastes something under his exact standards — including his own 50-year old son who works there. Jiro keeps a close eye on his customers, noticing if they are left-handed (he puts the sushi in a different place on the plate if it is) as well as making slightly smaller pieces for females. H also admits when his restaurant is closed on state holidays, he doesn’t know what to with himself.

I’ve been saying for years that cooking is a lot like programming software, and I thought many times about that through this film. Jiro said that, if you want to be the best chef, you can never be satisfied, always strive to be better, and you have to love it. These traits, to me, are the same as what makes a great developer. You have to always been learning, striving to make you things better, and you have to love the work. I think the last item is the most important — writing software is hard and takes a certain kind of dedication, nerves, and brain work that, frankly, not everyone is cut out for.

But if you decide that you like this kind of work, then you dedicate your life to it. And, if you want to dedicate your life to it, then you should be constantly looking for ways to get better. Back to Jiro . . he has been making sushi for 70 years. 70 years! And he is always looking for ways to get better. Not necessarily One Big Thing that will change sushi forever, but little increments, like the kind of rice to use, the temperature of the rice when the the sushi is made and served, massaging the octopus for a longer time to bring that much more flavor out of it, finding the best fish mongers to buy from . . the list goes on and on.

I think most software developers (including myself) want to find the silver bullet, the one thing that will make us all better. But, alas, it doesn’t exist. There is no one methodology to follow, no one language to use, no One True Editor or IDE that solves all the problems. We have to get better, in bits of a time.

Really, what I am talking about comes back to craftsmanship. We want to write great software and, after we do that, we want to do it again, but better this time. Never going back, but always improving. Uncle Bob already wrote a great summary of what this looks like so I will just close with telling you to read that. And get started on your personal improvement.

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