Steve Purcell

The root of so many problems in software: reflexively upscaling capacity instead of addressing efficiency. Once you see it, it's everywhere.

- Process running out of memory? Don't just give it more, find out why first, and reduce how much it allocates.

- Team delivering too slowly? Don't just expand the team, find out what's slowing them down.

- Too much work to track? Don't just buy Jira and curate a huge backlog, identify the essentials instead, and keep a simple list

Dec 29, 2023 at 3:24pmWeb
Show threadPuercoPopDec 29, 2023
@sanityinc More broadly, the issue is addressing the symptom instead of cause. Not finding the root cause hampers our ability to take informed decisions at all levels. From debugging (local) to the design of our solutions (org-wide)
Show threadSteve PurcellDec 29, 2023
@PuercoPop Yeah, also our tendency to prioritise action/addition over reflection/subtraction.
Show threadChristian LynbechDec 29, 2023
@sanityinc @dekkzz76 Well, expanding a team will only make it move even slower, as described in The Mythical Man-Month, which was published in 1975.
Show threadSteve PurcellDec 29, 2023
@mapcar @dekkzz76 Indeed, I read it in the 90s and it still holds up.
Show threaddeechDec 29, 2023
@sanityinc if you ever find this unicorn org please let me know ...
Show threadSteve PurcellDec 29, 2023
@deech I suspect making a good company is like making good art: choose (or be forced into) creative constraints and play with them. Or, you know, copy everyone else.