Neither the good programmer nor the bad programmer portrayed here would make a good employee/consultant, the former b/c things will break while the latter b/c things will never get delivered. They say software is eating the world and I believe this is true but not b/c genius/geek programmers abound but b/c there are hordes of smart good-enough 'programmers' out there putting good enough solutions, and yes, most will not be able to write a recursive function but who cares: the solutions run and solve real problems. That being said, we must thank the gurus who put up the layers that make it posible for the makers to bring out such solutions.
I agree. It is similar to that old phrase "perfect is the enemy of good." Sometimes what an idea needs is something minimal that gets the product out there and tested, shipping and selling in the real world. Sometimes the most financially effective programming isn't elegant, but rather something quick and dirty, transitory and ugly: something meant to be used and improved on or discarded for something better if and when time allots for it in the future.
