One of the recurring mantras of pastagang is “bad code only”.
Why would you write bad code on purpose? Why would you be bad on purpose?
Well, for a start it lowers the barrier to entry. By writing bad code, you make it more normal to write bad code, so the jam space becomes easier to become part of: Because it means you don’t have to be good to fit in.
Another reason is that whatever we perceive as “bad code” is usually more basic. “Good code” tends to be whatever is most impressive or “genius” or hard. Yes, good code is, by definition, hard to do, and bad code is easy.
By writing bad code, you are writing code that is easy to copy and replicate and understand and react to, and edit. Sometimes I see really “good” live coders enter something like nudel and I see them work away in their little corner and no one touches their code or goes near, because no one else is good enough to understand it.
Maybe when bad code dies, we don’t feel so sad about it.
Maybe one day our definitions of “good” and “bad” will flip but this is currently what they are.
And finally, writing “bad code” is an act of rebellion. It means saying “no” to the cultural norms that are imposed onto us. It’s a rejection of those values and a statement of something else, saying that what is important to you is not what is important to us.
“Kaleidescope is bad”?
I couldn’t give a fuck. If you think being good or impressive is what we’re trying to do here then you’re wrong.
In my opinion, art isn’t about being good or impressive or anything like that or whatever. Art is about communication! It’s about coming together as community and expressing something to each other. And if the thing that you’re expressing with your art is that you’re “good at it” then what does that say about your values / what’s important to you?
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