[orangeduck]

I'm a big advocate of "worse is better" - in fact I put it in my bio even at the risk of scaring off potential colleagues or employers. The real meaning of "worse is better" is of course subjective and complicated. And as has been pointed out in these comments, "worse is better" is not about creating "worse" software and then marketing it as "better". It is something much more philosophical.

In my eyes "worse is better" is about the mindset of approaching a task. It is about diving right in and learning through production - without being paralysed by the idea of introducing hacks or ugly design. It is the idea that, for the moment, there isn't a need to be worried about covering every edge case or possible failure option. It persuades you to focus on something simple and easy to explain, with a single purpose or intent. It is better to produce something (anything) and see where it takes you.

It also says how important it is to embrace contribution and collaboration. How important it is to, after some threshold, release yourself from feelings of ownership.

But if I had to nail down exactly why I believe "worse" is so successful ("better") it is because those that create "worse" software don't focus on the software - they focus on the idea. From that the software is painfully drawn. The software might suck, but I believe ideas are better. They are more persistant, easily explored, dynamic, and shareable than software. Ideas that are good, simple, and easily taught are far more important than well designed software. That is why they survive.

There are lots of programmers and hackers who don't believe in "worse is better". Sometimes you seen them on HN with a fantastic new programming language (or something) they have designed and built in isolation - perfect in every aspect (at least to them). Nothing quite hurts like their confusion when interest dwindles and their software is forgotten. All they had seen on HN were "worse" links every day, and after years they had provided "better" - to them it is criminal that it hasn't been picked and gained momentum.

Worse is better is not going away, and I think you can either engage yourself in it as a philosophy, or struggle.

[empthought]

"Sometimes you seen them on HN with a fantastic new programming language (or something) they have designed and built in isolation - perfect in every aspect (at least to them). Nothing quite hurts like their confusion when interest dwindles and their software is forgotten."

I suspect you've described Rich Hickey to a tee here. /s