Discussing the meme "worse is better" is difficult because there are different interpretations and usages of that phrase. It's description vs prescription. The blog author chose the prescription interpretation. I can't tell if the author unknowingly did this because he did not see a separate evolution of that meme.
First interpretation is the descriptive usage. We could explicitly prefix the meme and qualify it as RGWIB (Richard-Gabriel-Worse-is-Better). The original label was the observation that "simpler" software was more successful than more full-featured software with ambitious goals. Richard's thesis wasn't about "hacks" but about small and simple things that satisfy users and builds momentum.
Second interpretation is the prescriptive (or self-justifying) stance which I might call HOBWIB (Hacks-Ok-Because-Worse-is-Better.) This appears to be what the blogger is complaining about.
However, HOBWIB isn't Richard Gabriel's thesis. That "worse is better" has taken on a life of its own and repurposed by others who are unaware of RG's original meaning is just a circumstance of adopting snappy soundbites. Whatever behavior the author is complaining about would exist whether the exact phrase "worse is better" existed or not.
>“Worse is Better”, in other words, asks us to accept a false dichotomy: either we write software that is ugly and full of hacks, or we are childish idealists who try to create software artifacts of beauty and elegance.
That label does not have that power over us. For example, we have a label for certain human behavior and call it "passive aggressive." The existence of that phrase did not force us to choose whether to be passive aggressive or not. Likewise, thinking that the existence of 3 words "worse is better" is forcing us into a dichotomy of bad vs good design is flawed analysis.
RPG's WIB said nothing about bad design. C didn't do better than lisp because it was a hack. It was an incredibly clean design, as clean as the original lisp. RPG was comparing two clean designs, and trying to describe the evolutionary properties of one that made it more fit in its environment (ie us) than the other. The biggest such property is simplicity of implementation. (Later C compilers have gotten more complex and ++, but a modern compiler wouldn't have been as competitive in an earlier world where C wasn't already adopted: http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2011/09/23/the-milo-criterion)
It does seem to me that the author has unfortunately encountered a more negative interpretation of the meme. Personally I've read the original RGWIB essay and took away a couple interpretations. First, a simpler implementation is generally better for developers. Second, since developers are tasked with maintaining this code, and getting a mental grasp on it, they're better off imposing their will to a certain extent on users, rather than pile on every feature requested. Now, the second point can be taken to an extreme in the market by just pushing a bunch of hacks out quickly and forcing users to deal with that. But I think that's the essential difference between HOBWIB and RGWIB: the former is about the pure imposition of one's will upon users while RGWIB is about the imposition of will in the name of simplicity. Personally, I think RGWIB is a force for good, but perhaps needs a new meme to distingiush itself.
First interpretation is the descriptive usage. We could explicitly prefix the meme and qualify it as RGWIB (Richard-Gabriel-Worse-is-Better). The original label was the observation that "simpler" software was more successful than more full-featured software with ambitious goals. Richard's thesis wasn't about "hacks" but about small and simple things that satisfy users and builds momentum.
Second interpretation is the prescriptive (or self-justifying) stance which I might call HOBWIB (Hacks-Ok-Because-Worse-is-Better.) This appears to be what the blogger is complaining about.
However, HOBWIB isn't Richard Gabriel's thesis. That "worse is better" has taken on a life of its own and repurposed by others who are unaware of RG's original meaning is just a circumstance of adopting snappy soundbites. Whatever behavior the author is complaining about would exist whether the exact phrase "worse is better" existed or not.
>“Worse is Better”, in other words, asks us to accept a false dichotomy: either we write software that is ugly and full of hacks, or we are childish idealists who try to create software artifacts of beauty and elegance.
That label does not have that power over us. For example, we have a label for certain human behavior and call it "passive aggressive." The existence of that phrase did not force us to choose whether to be passive aggressive or not. Likewise, thinking that the existence of 3 words "worse is better" is forcing us into a dichotomy of bad vs good design is flawed analysis.