Chapter 4: Extremo Culture

Overview

Just Hack

(Sing to the tune of Get Back by The Beatles)

JoJo was a man who really liked to program
But he couldn t do design
He d start writing
Smalltalk early in the morning
Cause it made him feel just fine

Just hack!
Just hack!
Just hack and whack code all day long!

(Just hack, JoJo)

JoJo s pair Loretta was kind of a loner
Thought more clearly on her own
She would grab the mouse while JoJo wasn t looking
Code when he was on the phone

Just hack!
Just hack!
Refactor if the smell is wrong!

(Just hack, Loretta)

JoJo and Loretta had a disagreement
While refactoring a class
JoJo d smelled the code a couple times too often
You know it smelled like California grass

Just hack!
Just hack!
Just hack and whack code all day long!

With XP s rise in popularity, a parallel culture has also arisen (we call it Extremo culture ). You could be forgiven for thinking that this is a counterculture because some of it seems contrary to XP s teachings ”except that some of the XP authors seem as immersed in the Extremo culture as their followers. For example, XP teaches us to respect our colleagues and fellow humans , but one or two of the XP authors seem quite active in the popular Extremo sport of shoot the messenger (as we explore later in this chapter).

A methodology does not stand alone: It is defined by its proponents. This is probably more true of XP than any other methodology. In this chapter, we examine why this is the case by looking at various aspects of the Extremo culture. These aspects include the pejorative terminology that pervades the XP literature (such as overuse of the word fear when discussing software projects) and the tendency of XPers to attack the character of people who are opposed to XP rather than their arguments. We also explain why the dot-com boom and its associated hack-and-whack culture were perfectly timed to accelerate XP s popularity.