Week 11 Lab: Should a Maintainer Always Keep Polishing?
A formal debate lab — arguing for and against continued polish, to find the exact point where this course's own thesis stops holding
17 May 2027
Groups of three per side, two sides per debate. Motion: “A maintainer should always keep polishing a shipped feature.” One team of three argues for, one against, drawing on week 11’s lecture and Richard Gabriel’s “Rise of Worse Is Better” essay.
Before the lab#
Read week 11’s lecture and the Gabriel essay it links in full — this debate doesn’t work if the “for” side hasn’t actually read the strongest version of the counter-argument they’re meant to be rebutting.
In the lab#
Standard debate format: opening statement from each side (three minutes), rebuttal (two minutes each), closing statement (one minute each). The closing statement is where the marks concentrate — each side has to name the specific point where the polish curve turns, i.e. where they’d concede the other side is right, rather than defending an absolute position to the end.
Submitting#
Each team’s prepared opening statement and a short note on what their closing concession was. Due Friday 21 May, 5pm.
Groups of three per side.
The spec
What you bring to the session. Written so a reader can tell whether it has been met without asking you.
- both sides argue from specific examples (open-source or otherwise), not just abstract principle
- the "for" side has to engage with Gabriel's "worse is better" essay directly, not just assert that finishing is always good
- the debate's closing statement from each side identifies the actual point (a feature, a threshold, a cost) where their opponent's position would start being right
Teaching team
- Marisol Quaye — convenor