My friend Ian Griggs has come through again with a link on his blog to a new reality TV show called The Code Room. The idea behind the show, which is still only at the pilot stage, is to take 3 developers, stick them in a room with one laptop and a bunch of partially charged batteries and get them to come up with a complete solution (in the case of the pilot, that solution is an eCommerce website) before they run out of power.
I'm saddened to admit that I actually like American Reality TV shows. While we have some incredibly evil concepts in the UK, it takes the Americans to implement reality TV shows that really get you on the edge of the seat screaming at the TV. You see, the Americans have figured out that the correct formula for a successful reality TV show is the following
1. Prima Donnas - you must, in a team based environment, have at least one (more is best) prima donna. This is someone that won't work with the rest of the team, that disapproves of everything they are doing, and thus causes friction.
2. Dullards - it's absolutely vital in a US reality TV show that you get more than one cerebrally challenged person in the group. Better yet, the dullard(s) need to be totally convinced that they are intellectually superior to everyone and everyone
3. Drama Queens - this can be a combination of 1 and 2, a person (sex is irrelevant) who insists on turning every bump into the road into a huge steaming mountain of excrement that in their mind is insurmountable.
The Code Room, from the trailer I've seen, has all these elements, with the three people in the pilot episode apparently fighting and squabbling over just what needs to be done, and who needs to do it. From the trailer it appears that as the arguments ensue, the notebook remains running, trickling away their precious battery life.
The pilot is apparently going to be aired on a number of cable feeds across the States, as well as being made available for download from MSDN TV. I hope it gets picked up and makes it to a full series - it shows a lot of promise, not least of which is an insight into the team dynamic and thought processes that some developers under pressure go through. I'm also waiting for the inevitable really boring episode where the 3 are all extreme programmers and naturally break up into one customer plus a pair, and deliver a working solution with no arguments or hassles at all :)
9:24:06 AM 
|
