Why Are Hacks Good?

A hack I would define as:

• a way of accomplishing something when there is no natural way to do it

or

• a way of accomplishing something quickly when you don't have time to do it the proper way

or

• a way of accomplishing something quickly because you want to show how brilliant you are and you really believe it won't be used for long

or

• a way of accomplishing something quickly because you can't be bothered to do it the correct way or because you don't know there is a correct way

or

• a way of accomplishing something because you don't know and don't care to know the correct way

The reasons get less and less justifiable, and on our team less acceptable, as you go down the list!

The polyfills for JavaScript are the 1st category. Emergency hacks for customers are in the 2nd. But on our team we try very hard to not LEAVE them that way. The 3rd and further down are almost never acceptable on our team other than for 'proof of concept' though arguably, those fall into the 2nd, not the ones below. OCCASSIONALLY, for fun we will do the 3rd - but very rarely, and then they get fixed. Usually we just 'propose' the 3rd. 'propose' in quotes meaning it is tongue in cheek with no intention of really being done that way. Meaning we feel the ability to think of the fun hack is 90% of the emotional value, and saves a lot of time spending the 99% of the time 'doing' it.

In Alberta, getting away from computers, it is often proudly called a 'red neck hack'