最近讀了一篇非常有趣的文章，原文是英文，和大家共享，其大概意思是：

管程序員就象是養蜂人管蜜蜂一樣。養蜂人怎么管的呢？養蜂人其實并不能和蜜蜂溝通，誰會說“蜂語”啊。但他們可以把蜜蜂放在一個舒適的蜂房里，這樣他們自動就會采蜜了，你順手就可以拿走蜂蜜。：）
對程序員是類似的，把他們弄到一個舒服的環境里：工資比他們想要的高，以至于不會用了（當然，比你的預算還是要便宜）；這些蜜蜂會嚶嚶嗡嗡自己形成社會，程序員會自己評價自己，就象沉迷在打游戲里的家伙一樣，誰的話都聽不進去，就只愿意寫好的軟件 - 這和藝術家和戰士一樣。
軟件公司怎么失控的和完蛋的？通常是來了一個有個性的管理人員，這老兄一看，這幫程序員怎么這么 …… 不順眼啊？臟兮兮，亂糟糟，不配合，他們看起來是多無趣的一群人啊！最糟糕的是，他們還笑話你！于是對他們進行管理 …… 這下規范了，但是，程序員們被傷害了，他們被要求要參加會議，做計劃，寫報告，嚴格按照流程，千萬千萬不要去動別人的代碼！程序員覺得自己就象過起了外星人的生活 …… 于是，最好的程序員走了，有的開始怠工，甚至破壞 …… 蜂房毀了。管理者舒服了，因為好像事情開始受控了，大家開始打領帶了；但是 Bug 開始成堆出現，市場丟失，最后，關門大吉。

英文原文：
Software - How Software Companies Die
By Orson Scott Card
The environment that nutures creative programmers kills management and marketing types - and vice versa. Programming is the Great Game. It consumes you, body and soul. When you're caught up in it, nothing else matters. When you emerge into daylight, you might well discover that you're a hundred pounds overweight, your underwear is older than the average first grader, and judging from the number of pizza boxes lying around, it must be spring already. But you don't care, because your program runs, and the code is fast and clever and tight. You won. You're aware that some people think you're a nerd. So what? They're not players. They've never jousted with Windows or gone hand to hand with DOS. To them C++ is a decent grade, almost a B - not a language. They barely exist. Like soldiers or artists, you don't care about the opinions of civilians. You're building something intricate and fine. They'll never understand it.
BEEKEEPING
Here's the secret that every successful software company is based on: You can domesticate programmers the way beekeepers tame bees. You can't exactly communicate with them, but you can get them to swarm in one place and when they're not looking, you can carry off the honey. You keep these bees from stinging by paying them money. More money than they know what to do with. But that's less than you might think. You see, all these programmers keep hearing their parents' voices in their heads saying "When are you going to join the real world?" All you have to pay them is enough money that they can answer (also in their heads) "Geez, Dad, I'm making more than you." On average, this is cheap. And you get them to stay in the hive by giving them other coders to swarm with. The only person whose praise matters is another programmer. Less-talented programmers will idolize them; evenly matched ones will challenge and goad one another; and if you want to get a good swarm, you make sure that you have at least one certified genius coder that they can all look up to, even if he glances at other people's code only long enough to sneer at it. He's a Player, thinks the junior programmer. He looked at my code. That is enough. If a software company provides such a hive, the coders will give up sleep, love, health, and clean laundry, while the company keeps the bulk of the money.
OUT OF CONTROL
Here's the problem that ends up killing company after company. All successful software companies had, as their dominant personality, a leader who nurtured programmers. But no company can keep such a leader forever. Either he cashes out, or he brings in management types who end up driving him out, or he changes and becomes a management type himself. One way or another, marketers get control. But...control of what? Instead of finding assembly lines of productive workers, they quickly discover that their product is produced by utterly unpredictable, uncooperative, disobedient, and worst of all, unattractive people who resist all attempts at management. Put them on a time clock, dress them in suits, and they become sullen and start sabotaging the product. Worst of all, you can sense that they are making fun of you with every word they say.
SMOKED OUT
The shock is greater for the coder, though. He suddenly finds that alien creatures control his life. Meetings, Schedules, Reports. And now someone demands that he PLAN all his programming and then stick to the plan, never improving, never tweaking, and never, never touching some other team's code. The lousy young programmer who once worshiped him is now his tyrannical boss, a position he got because he played golf with some sphincter in a suit. The hive has been ruined. The best coders leave. And the marketers, comfortable now because they're surrounded by power neckties and they have things under control, are baffled that each new iteration of their software loses market share as the code bloats and the bugs proliferate. Got to get some better packaging. Yeah, that's it.

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