What's it all about, Alfie?

This morning I was dealing with yet another change to some clojure functions that are in a library that we have created at The Shop to make it easy to make the services that we make, and easy for new clojure developers to wrap their heads around. It's not perfect, or ideal, but it does strike a nice balance between purely functional code and re-use and state in the library.

Face it - connection pooling is state. It needs to exist, but it's not what you'd like to have if you could avoid it. So you bury it in a library, so that the new clojure developers can use this library with the connection pools clearly hidden off screen doing their thing.

It's a compromise. But one that favors the new clojure developer. And most days, that's the folks I have to work with. They typically know Java, or C#, but it's a rare individual that comes into the shop with a lot of clojure experience, and usually they "get it" about the decisions, and it's something they pretty easily adapt to.

But then there are others.

Today I've been dealing with Steve. Steve is a C# developer that hates his job. He's hated it for a long time. He hates the language he's using (C#). He hates the tools he is having to learn to do his job. He pretty much hates everything about his job.

But he wants to work in clojure.

Yet he's not really interested in learning the landscape. He wants to change it to be how he thinks is should be. I don't blame him - he questions a lot because he trusts no one. Having asked him this direct question, and receiving the affirmative response, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, this is exactly who he is. But to not learn what is before suggesting what should be is a little short-sighted.

That he's annoying about it is just "icing on the cake" for me.

So this morning I decided that emotion has no place in this conversation. Neither does his opinions. I have listened, I have tried to explain, I have listened more, and tried to show why this is the path we have taken. All of this is immaterial to him, and so in the end, I have to make a decision, list the reasons for this decision, and then move on.

I don't relish being a jerk. Or a dictator. But at this point, more conversation is wasting time. It's time to accept that this is the paradigm we are working under, and that's it.

I do not expect him to like it.