Strategy

[Ross Boylan]

On Sat, 2011-12-03 at 16:40 -0500, Donald Allen wrote:
> The big question is, when is it worth it to cut your losses and
> start over?
I don't have strong opinions, but others do, in the opposite direction:

Joel Spolsky says (in the context of Netsape)
> single worst strategic mistake that any software company can make:
> They decided to rewrite the code from scratch.

and also

> As a corollary of this axiom, you can ask almost any programmer today
> about the code they are working on. "It's a big hairy mess," they will
> tell you. "I'd like nothing better than to throw it out and start
> over."

There's more in his essay "Things You Should Never Do"
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html

Ross Boylan