Solid gold and jewel-encrusted, it’s no wonder it was called “the stuff dreams are made of.”
The heavy statue is the object of desire in the 1941 movie named after it, The Maltese Falcon.
Humphrey Bogart’s Sam Spade is a classic private investigator and the movie is quintessential film noir.
The statue? A complete fake.
Spoiler alert.
Multiple characters in the movie seek the Maltese Falcon. All have their motives for wanting the statue, and they will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. They engage in deception, double-crossing, and violence in their pursuit of the falcon.
But as you can tell from the picture, it’s not gold. It’s certainly not jewel-encrusted. It’s a big hunk of lead.
Far too often, developer docs are a Maltese Falcon: much sought-after… and ultimately disappointing.
That’s assuming you can even find them. That’s the first example of bad documentation and it comes in several forms:
- Purposely hidden
- Behind a login
- Obscurely-linked
- Non-existent
From a developer’s perspective, these all have the same result. If they can’t figure out what’s possible with your product, they’re unlikely to take the next step.
Here’s another spoiler alert: a DX Review can find these little problems and others like them.
It can help you see your product from a different perspective.
And, perhaps most importantly, it can keep you from chasing your own Maltese Falcons.