Comment by Tempest1981
5 years ago
I've seen lack-of-documentation worn as a badge of honor. "I'm moving so fast, I can't waste my time on documentation. That's the next guys problem."
And management is usually/always ok with this short-term optimization.
Also "if the code is clear, it documents itself". Which in my opinion completely misses the point. Good documentation doesn't tell you what the code is doing, it tells you why it's not doing something else.
That's a useful take,
Code says what is done. Docs says why
We had a guy that always opened PRs with no description. Guy always said “read the code”. Manager wouldn’t do shit and he kept doing it until we all just stopped reviewing his code and then he couldn’t merge.
Like dude, tell us why we should read the code in the first place.
But there are circumstances where documentation would be outdated before it is finished.
Trying to write ops documentation on an unfinished project can be this way.