computer science

Worse is better

Worse is better is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Worse is better rather than just read about it. In short: "Worse is better" or the "New Jersey style" is a term coined by Richard P. Gabriel in a 1989 essay to describe the dynamics of software acceptance and the frequency with which "worse" designs seem to outcompete better ones.

Key takeaways

Worse is better belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Worse is better to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Worse is better from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

"Worse is better" or the "New Jersey style" is a term coined by Richard P. Gabriel in a 1989 essay to describe the dynamics of software acceptance and the frequency with which "worse" designs seem to outcompete better ones. The essay argues simple, hacked-together software that makes it to market first will often outcompete better and more elegant designs. Gabriel argues that by the time the elegant design is complete, users who have adopted the worse design will be unable to switch as a result of switching barriers, vendor lock-in, and backward compatibility requirements. Gabriel contrasts "worse-is-better" software with the "MIT Approach" of doing the "Right Thing", and argues bare-minimum software "has better survival characteristics than the-right-thing". Gabriel offers the examples of the adoption of C over Lisp, Unix over Lisp machines and VMS, and x86 over reduced instruction set computers as examples of technically worse solutions defeating more elegant ones by arriving to market first. The essay was included into the 1994 book The UNIX-HATERS Handbook, and has been referred to as the origin of the notion of a conceptual split between developers on the east and west coasts of the United States.

Origin Gabriel was a Lisp programmer when he formulated the concept in 1989, presenting it in his essay "Lisp: Good News, Bad News, How to Win Big". A section of the article, titled "The Rise of 'Worse is Better'", was widely disseminated beginning in 1991, after Jamie Zawinski found it in Gabriel's files at Lucid Inc. and emailed it to friends and colleagues.

Characteristics In The Rise of Worse is Better, Gabriel identified a "Worse is Better" model of software design and implementation which has the characteristics of simplicity, correctness, consistency, and completeness (in approximately descending order of importance). Gabriel contrasted his philosophy, also called the "New Jersey style", "Berkeley", or "West coast" model, with what he called the "MIT/Stanford style of design" or "MIT approach", also known as the "east coast" approach or "the Right Thing".

Gabriel argued that early Unix and C, developed by Bell Labs (at their campus in New Jersey, thus lending the term its alternate name), are examples of the worse-is-better design approach. He also calls them "the ultimate computer viruses", due to their rapid spread.

Effects Gabriel argued that "Worse is better" produced more successful software than the MIT approach: As long as the initial program is "good enough", it will take much less time and effort to implement initially and it will be easier to adapt to new situations. Porting software to new machines, for example, becomes far easier this way. Thus its use will spread rapidly, long before a program developed using the MIT approach has a chance to be developed and deployed (first-mover advantage). Once it has spread, there will be pressure to improve its functionality, but users have already been conditioned to accept "worse" rather than the "right thing":

Therefore, the worse-is-better software first will gain acceptance, second will condition its users to expect less, and third will be improved to a point that is almost the right thing. In concrete terms, even though Lisp compilers in 1987 were about as good as C compilers, there are many more compiler experts who want to make C compilers better than want to make Lisp compilers better. Gabriel credits Jamie Zawinski for excerpting the worse-is-better sections of "Lisp: Good News, Bad News, How to Win Big" and e-mailing them to his friends at Carnegie Mellon University, who sent them to their friends at Bell Labs, "who sent them to their friends everywhere". He apparently connected these ideas to those of Richard Stallman and saw related ideas that are important in the design philosophy of Unix, and more generally in the open-source movement, both of which were central to the development of Linux. In December 2000 Gabriel answered his earlier essay with one titled Worse Is Better Is Worse under the pseudonym Nickieben Bourbaki (an allusion to Nicolas Bourbaki), while also writing Is Worse Really Better?, applying the concept to C++'s success in the field of object-oriented programming despite the existence of more elegant languages designed around the concept. The UNIX-HATERS Handbook includes Worse is Better as an appendix, and frames the concept in terms of worse-is-better in the form of Unix being "evolutionarily superior" to its competition.

See also Gresham's law If it ain't broke don't fix it Keep it simple stupid Less is more Minimum viable product Perfect is the enemy of good Satisficing Unix Wabi-sabi

References

Further reading Gangarz, Mike (2003-08-05), Linux and the Unix philosophy, Elsevier Science, pp. 122–125, ISBN 9781555582739 Graham, Paul (2004-05-18), Hackers and Painters, O'Reilly Media, p. 220, ISBN 9780596803100 Mayer, Christian (2022-08-02), The Art of Clean Code, No Starch Press, pp. 117–118, ISBN 9781718502192

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Worse is better

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Worse is better claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Worse is better before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Worse is better ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Worse is better

In research: Worse is better appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Worse is better in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Worse is better is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics English phrases, Programming principles, Quality management, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Worse is better outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Worse is better” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Worse is better in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Worse is better means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Worse is better out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Worse is better in simple terms?

Why does Worse is better matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Worse is better?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Worse is better.