alt Hacker NewsIs this a remake of "just spend 15 days near a whiteboard, then write the code and it will be awesome" ?
Have you ever heard of the V model (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-model) ?
Long story short: it does not work, because the act of coding adds new valuable inputs that alters the (original) design.
One might say "you just have to know", which is an equivalent to "you just have to figure out the future", "you just have to be perfect" and other non-sense (which does explain why V cycle does not work, high inefficient, low quality outcome, bad method)
There's a wide spectrum between specs upfront vs trial and error with the codebase. Somewhere in the middle sits the whole MVP and iterative building, where you start with a smaller codebase and fill it up. Basically exploiting the fact that a lot of concepts, while interconnected, are modular and can be tackled on their own. Like how the design of the brakes and the engine in a car, while related, are mostly blackboxes in regard to each other.
People that do trial and errors lacks direction and their code is often fragile, especially with evolving situation. Because their have failed to grasp the deeper truth of the domain. The usual signs are tightly coupled code and code churn.