Make Boring Plans
skamille.medium.com
Make Boring Plans
1–10 of 23 posts
Re: Make Boring Plans
#2Creating a buffer for the unexpected allows for pleasant surprise - or possibly magic.
Re: Make Boring Plans
#3Boring doesn't work if the solution you've picked has flaws that the new technology addresses out-of-the-box.
You'll constantly get into arguments about why we're not deploying the new upcoming thing that obviously fixes the issue.
At some point you'll need to switch over anyways, its better to get production battle experience by trying the new tech early and rolling it out where it makes sense.
It avoids internal factions and the "shadow infrastructure" that was mentioned.
Re: Make Boring Plans
#4Boring doesn't work if the solution you've picked has flaws that the new technology addresses out-of-the-box. You'll constantly get into arguments about why we're not deploying the new upcoming thing that obviously fixes the issue. At some point you'll need to switch over anyways, its better to get production battle experience by trying the new tech early and rolling it out where it makes sense. It avoids internal fa…
I read your comment as "boring is hard if your existing platform is on fire" and I totally agree with that.
The advice is that you take the new tech and do a boring thing with it first, like deploy or build something non-critical and gain the production experience that way.
The least interesting thing to do would still be to stabilise $old while carefully getting $new ready.
Re: Make Boring Plans
#5Boring doesn't work if the solution you've picked has flaws that the new technology addresses out-of-the-box. You'll constantly get into arguments about why we're not deploying the new upcoming thing that obviously fixes the issue. At some point you'll need to switch over anyways, its better to get production battle experience by trying the new tech early and rolling it out where it makes sense. It avoids internal fa…
I read your comment as "boring is hard if your existing platform is on fire" and I totally agree with that. The advice is that you take the new tech and do a boring thing with it first, like deploy or build something non-critical and gain the production experience that way. The least interesting thing to do would still be to stabilise $old while carefully getting $new ready.
Yep, in hardware this is picking a new material to work with, try it out in some smaller part that's easier to work and isn't critical, and then see its failure rate in the wild. Get used to using it before you bet on it.
Re: Make Boring Plans
#6Creating a buffer for the unexpected allows for pleasant surprise - or possibly magic.
Also known as lowering your expectations.
Re: Make Boring Plans
#7Boring doesn't work if the solution you've picked has flaws that the new technology addresses out-of-the-box. You'll constantly get into arguments about why we're not deploying the new upcoming thing that obviously fixes the issue. At some point you'll need to switch over anyways, its better to get production battle experience by trying the new tech early and rolling it out where it makes sense. It avoids internal fa…
> Boring doesn't work if the solution you've picked has flaws that the new technology addresses out-of-the-box.
Problem is, the old thing has known benefits and known flaws, while the new thing has known benefits but unknown flaws.
Re: Make Boring Plans
#8What developers think when they hear 'aggressive timeline': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8OnoxKotPQ
What managers think: https://youtu.be/-TKjwblp1XI?t=1373
Point being, nobody gets a documentary about themselves made for delivering against a boring deadline.
Re: Make Boring Plans
#9Creating a buffer for the unexpected allows for pleasant surprise - or possibly magic.
Also known as lowering your expectations.
That’s one way of looking at it. It could also be described as being realistic - there are always “unknown unknowns” and all else equal, no matter how motivated and capable your team, estimates that consider this will be more accurate than those that do not.
Re: Make Boring Plans
#10Boring doesn't work if the solution you've picked has flaws that the new technology addresses out-of-the-box. You'll constantly get into arguments about why we're not deploying the new upcoming thing that obviously fixes the issue. At some point you'll need to switch over anyways, its better to get production battle experience by trying the new tech early and rolling it out where it makes sense. It avoids internal fa…
> Boring doesn't work if the solution you've picked has flaws that the new technology addresses out-of-the-box. Problem is, the old thing has known benefits and known flaws, while the new thing has known benefits but unknown flaws.
This happens to be one outsized point of the earlier "Choose Boring Technology" piece that is linked: https://mcfunley.com/choose-boring-technology