nomads do not build cathedrals
DESCRIPTION
ESUG 2014, Cambridge. Thu, August 21, 2:00pm – 2:30pm Video Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcoy5gwUvOA Video Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LrH9r4FNzY Abstract: This will a rather unusual talk for ESUG. The theme is not Smalltalk directly, but instead I discuss how progress and inventing new things fits with incremental, reflective nature of Smalltalk. People often argue that progress is only possible when you throw everything away and start from scratch. In this talk I will argue that this thinking is a trap and the only way for progress in practice is to take an incremental approach of constantly improving and therefore evolving the imperfect system you already have. I will show how the idea of creating feedback loops of improvement actually lead to non-linear growth and how this process of reflective constant improvement fits with the Smalltalk philosophy of incrementally and dynamically changing a running system.TRANSCRIPT
Nomads do not build CathedralsMarcus Denker http://www.marcusdenker.de
Software
Strange Talk…
No idea if it will work
The Platform
Jump to large
Proj
ect1
Proj
ect2
Proj
ect3
Nomadic Solution
- Do not build infrastructure !
- Use resources until depleted !
- Move on
The Platform
Jump Possible
Proj
ect1 Pr
ojec
t2
Proj
ect3
Proj
ect4
Better?
- Invest in infrastructure !
- Build new abstractions !
Feedback Loop
Projects Infrastructure
Feedback loop is not enough!!
Add until it is unmaintainable. Throw everything away.
Feedback loop is not enough!!!
After the first line of code you are in maintenance
Sustainable Feedback !!
- Constant Cleanup - Constant Improvement
To build a cathedral you need to build a toilet first
The toilet is not the cathedral
Yet there can not be a cathedral without building
a toilet first
Effects?
Perfection
Constant “in Progress”
Scaffolding
System is not an Artefact
Always a Result
…instead of dreaming of perfection
Trivial Changes
Every improvement has an effect
Starting point for contributors
Only trivialities?
No!
Exponential effect
Compound Interest
Scaffolding
Todays system is scaffolding for tomorrow
The whole system could be replaced within just some iterations