IKEA v. the Amish

There are at least two separate groups of software developers: craftsman and industrial programmers. Neither of them is better than the other, but they are widely different and service very distinct markets. An analogy that I've been told is reasonable is the difference between IKEA and an Amish Craftsman in Mid-Ohio. People go to them for two different things. You don't go to the Amish Craftsman to build you something on the cheap, made of inferior materials, poorly constructed and that was intended to be replaced in a couple years. Likewise, you don't go to IKEA to buy a piece of furniture that has the potential to become a family heirloom. Different goals and a place for both. Nobody I've talked to has said they think of IKEA as a craftsman workshop, just like nobody thinks of the Amish workshop as an industrial factory pumping out cheap product.

- Corey Haines