Jon Pretty seeks Rúnar's advice on writing better software

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Jon Pretty sat down with Rúnar Bjarnason to get help with becoming a better programmer.

Jon: Rúnar, how can I write better software?

--- Prompt ends

Rúnar: Stop making so many bugs.

Jon: What should I do before releasing my code?

Rúnar: Find all bugs. You cannot release better software with more bugs.

Jon: I have been working on a social network. Should I use third party software for it?

Rúnar: No, you must code it yourself. Using third party software is cheating.

Jon: What if the third party software is open source?

Rúnar: It's still cheating.

The next week, you have your second interview with Rúnar.

Jon: Rúnar, I am interested in data structures.

Rúnar: You should be. They are the foundation to all software engineering.

Jon: What are the best data structures to use for my social network?

Rúnar: Arrays. All data should be stored in arrays.

Jon: But what if I need to search for a specific type of data?

Rúnar: You shouldn't. Storing data is for idiots who don't understand pointers.

Jon: But my data isn't in an array. It's stored in a hashtable so I can search for specific types of data.

Rúnar: You're still an idiot who doesn't understand pointers. You should be storing all data in arrays. Arrays are the best data structure.

Jon: Okay. What about binary trees?

Rúnar: They're for weak students who don't understand arrays.

Jon: Linked lists?

Rúnar: Only for geniuses who don't understand that there's no reason to use linked lists in the real world.

Jon: Tree structures?

Rúnar: You shouldn't use trees unless you're writing a compiler.

Jon: Hash tables?

Rúnar: They're okay for idiots who don't understand pointers.

Jon: What should I use then?

Rúnar: Arrays. All data should be stored in arrays. Arrays are the best data structure.

Jon: Okay.

Over the next month, you become a lot more knowledgeable about arrays. You feel like you've become a better programmer. You finish your social network software and launch it to great success. All your friends sign up to it. Your high school creates a class account so all the students can communicate with each other.

A year later, Facebook is launched.

Five years later, Rúnar launches his own social network called Twittur. He makes a billion dollars when Google buys it because he was smart enough to not use arrays.

THE END