Whatever... [Deepak Alur's Blog]: Deepak Alur's Blog @ Sun

Don't you hate being stereotyped? I do, anywhere anytime.

This time, I think the restaurant chefs are out to get me! They want to find out how spicy I can eat, because they hear Indians can eat very spicy food with ease and delight. So this is exactly what happens to me in some restaurants and especially in ethnic restaurants. And especially if I am new to that restaurant.

When I find a new restaurant, I really really want to check it out. So, when I get my food, I find that they made it the spiciest they can, without checking with me first! And then hand it to me with a big smile and say what I have now heard many times in many places:

"I made it extra spicy for you!"

And I am like:

"What the...Oh no! I hate friggin extra spicy! Spicy is ok, but extra spicy? Darn!"

Of course, I do not say that aloud to them, because I might want to come back there again. So nowadays while ordering my food, I ask them upfront to go easy on the extra spicy.

On the plus side, spicy food does have potential benefits. Check out Kormatherapy! ^Korma
Hmm...Maybe I am shouldn't be complaining after all!
Todd Fast points out Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages, which provides a detailed look at each of over a hundred spices.

Programmer's Kormatherapy

Now, let me draw a parallel lesson in software development from the afore mentioned experience. If in the above anecdote, I substitute as follows:

• Replace Chef with Programmer
• Replace Diner with Customer
• Replace Food with Code
• Replace Spices with Features

Now i wonder how often programmers produce code with extra/excessive features than what the customer really asked for in the first place. For instance, if customer asks for a feature set {A, B, C} and the programmer churns out {A, B, C, D, E}, would the customer be delighted? Probably, if {A, B, C} were implemented to meet the requirements. However, a more likely scenario is that the programmer churns out {A, X, Y} because {X, Y} is what the programmer thinks the customer asked for when they described {B, C}. But a more interesting reason might turn out to be the wanderlust programmer implementing {X, Y}, which seem a lot more fun than implementing boring old {B, C} !