Warnaco Speedos Ahead

Grok Headline matches for Warnaco Speedos Ahead

Don't Get Ahead of Yourself

Don't Get Ahead of Yourself 03/14/2005 06:07 PM

Here are two things that cut so many good ideas off at the knees. These two factors are the two biggest things that stop good ideas from getting implemented and make programmers pause when they should forge ahead.

1. The Urge to Generalize
Say you come up with an idea for a little transaction management system — a tracking app that follows a sales transaction from inception to closure. It works well for your company, but — you think — if I unleash this on the world, then it has to be able to handle other things, right?

I have to abstract the simple "Transaction Name" field away to be able to handle "Buyers" and "Sellers" in case someone wants to use it for third party brokerage, right? And what exactly constitutes a transaction? I need to have an object oriented "Attributes" sub-system to be able to handle any information they want to store, right? Etc. Etc.

Pretty quickly, you've decided that it's just too much work to do all this stuff you just made up and imposed on yourself, so forget it.

I think programmers equate "The software doesn't handle that" with "I can't make it do that because I suck." We never want to say no or have to admit that our software wasn't designed to do everything. If our image editing program can't also balance our checkbook, then we have somehow failed and it's not worth releasing.

(In terms of content management, I've talked about the The Urge to Generalize here. For some reason, I discussed it in positive terms...)

2. The Fear of Expansion
So you get past the first hurdle with your little transaction management system, and you're coding happily away. But then your mind starts to look down the road....

You think, well, I should put something in here so the user can indicate that an invoice was sent for payment. I mean, people don't want to do double-entry, right? But then why can't this system just generate the invoice....and track receipt of the payment...and display aggregate customer sales figures...etc.

Before you know it you (1) have mentally evolved your simple app into an accounting system, and (2) scared the crap out of yourself because there are apps like Peachtree and Quickbooks that do this better, and (3) thrown in the towel.

Why do we look at every app as always getting bigger? I appreciate ambition, but the problem with this is at the end of every development road is a bigger app that you're going to run into and encroach at some point. Why can't we stop three-quarters of the way down this road and just be happy with that? Do one thing and do it well. (Josh Clark has been very good at this, judging from the comments on this entry.)

These two things have killed millions of good ideas before they even got out of the starting gate. As programmers, we think too much, sometimes. Your app (1) doesn't need to handle every possible scenario, (2) encompass every aspect of functionaity, and (3) continue evolving into a successfully bigger and bigger app.

If this little essay makes sense to you, read this one from Joel Spolsky. Same concept from a little different angle:

These are the people I call Architecture Astronauts. It's very hard to get them to write code or design programs, because they won't stop thinking about Architecture. They're astronauts because they are above the oxygen level, I don't know how they're breathing. They tend to work for really big companies that can afford to have lots of unproductive people with really advanced degrees that don't contribute to the bottom line.

The Functionality Astronauts are just as dangeous as the Architecture Astronauts.

What's Ahead for C++?

What's Ahead for C++? 08/17/2004 01:14 PM
These days, Microsoft's C# gets the lion's share of the attention (and ink). But Microsoft is continuing to work on Visual C++.

Dark Age Ahead

Dark Age Ahead 05/03/2004 04:06 AM
Alright, so it's a descent into schilling, but there can be no more exciting news to greet a sunny Monday morning than that of a new book by Jane Jacobs. Not content with blowing out the back of my intellectual...

GM crops set to get go ahead

GM crops set to get go ahead 03/08/2004 11:23 PM
The UK government is about to approve the commercial growing of one variety of GM maize.

Ahead of the Game

Ahead of the Game 08/31/2004 09:05 PM
Consumer Goods Technology Sep 1 2004 1:45AM GMT

Run from Sun ahead of Q2 - analyst

Run from Sun ahead of Q2 - analyst 01/03/2005 05:38 PM
Down on investor optimism

"getting ahead of a story"

"getting ahead of a story" 05/20/2004 02:30 AM

Danger ahead?

Danger ahead? 07/06/2004 08:41 AM
CNET Asia Jul 6 2004 1:10PM GMT

The Fool's Look Ahead

The Fool's Look Ahead 09/17/2004 10:40 AM
The Motley Fool's Rick Munarriz takes a look at the business week that approaches.

Comair changes ahead

Comair changes ahead 12/29/2004 09:47 AM
USA Today Dec 29 2004 1:53PM GMT

Looking Ahead, Looking Small

Looking Ahead, Looking Small 05/15/2004 11:37 AM

I'm at the Foresight Institute's annual Senior Associates gathering. It's off the record, so no blogging will result.

Broadband changes ahead

Broadband changes ahead 07/18/2004 12:52 AM
News.bbc.co.uk - Fri Jul 16, 07:52 am GMT

Trouble ahead

Trouble ahead 07/30/2004 01:53 AM
USA Today Jul 30 2004 6:02AM GMT

What's next? A look ahead to 2004

What's next? A look ahead to 2004 12/28/2003 05:27 AM
Boston Globe Dec 28 2003 4:08AM ET

Ahead Nero 6

Ahead Nero 6 11/06/2003 01:55 AM
vnunet.com Nov 6 2003 0:55AM ET

Moving ahead with the best of the old

Moving ahead with the best of the old 04/11/2005 06:17 AM
Computer Weekly Apr 11 2005 9:39AM GMT

Playboy gets go-ahead to sue AOL

Playboy gets go-ahead to sue AOL 01/16/2004 11:02 AM
Playboy gets the right to sue AOL unit Netscape in a breach of copyright case over the term "playmate".

Big changes ahead for Flash

Big changes ahead for Flash 04/07/2005 03:45 PM
Macromedia promises significant changes to Flash interface and video capabilities, and talks about tech for cell phone carriers.

802.11n Slapfest Ahead.

802.11n Slapfest Ahead. 08/17/2004 08:40 PM
Unstrung: 802.11n Slapfest Ahead. After reading overviews of both proposals it's hard to see much technical difference between them. There's an argument about whether support for 40 MHz channels should be "mandatory", but that seems like a policy decision that can be left for later. 802.11's encrustation of backwards-compatibility hacks is getting pretty amusing.

Google's IPO goes ahead

Google's IPO goes ahead 08/18/2004 08:24 PM
Melbourne Age Aug 19 2004 0:56AM GMT

Faster XML ahead?

Faster XML ahead? 03/23/2005 07:46 AM
The W3C is closer to tackling sluggish XML performance, but not everyone agrees with the group's approach.

Google IPO moves ahead

Google IPO moves ahead 08/16/2004 12:52 AM
Xinhua News Agency Aug 16 2004 4:31AM GMT

Wait for 4G or move ahead with 3G?

Wait for 4G or move ahead with 3G? 08/01/2004 06:18 PM
Singapore Business Times Aug 1 2004 8:47PM GMT

SEC quiet on Google go-ahead

SEC quiet on Google go-ahead 08/18/2004 03:08 AM
Boston Globe Aug 18 2004 7:50AM GMT

Intel adapts to changes ahead

Intel adapts to changes ahead 02/19/2004 03:33 PM
If processors are going to continue to increase in performance, they'll have to be a lot more flexible in the future, the chipmaker says.

US: Google forges ahead with IPO

US: Google forges ahead with IPO 08/16/2004 10:06 PM
Asia Media Aug 17 2004 2:28AM GMT

Afghan candidates given go-ahead

Afghan candidates given go-ahead 08/10/2004 09:01 AM
Interim Afghan President Hamid Karzai will face 17 challengers in landmark October presidential elections.

GM crop go-ahead 'irresponsible'

GM crop go-ahead 'irresponsible' 03/06/2004 02:00 AM
MPs say it would be irresponsible to allow GM crops to be grown commercially in the UK on the basis of the recent trials.

Delays ahead for icy commuters

Delays ahead for icy commuters 01/29/2004 03:49 AM
Icy conditions will make the journey to work a difficult one for many people on Thursday, forecasters warn.

Sybase looks ahead to RFID

Sybase looks ahead to RFID 08/16/2004 12:52 AM
CNET News.com Aug 16 2004 4:46AM GMT

* Google forges ahead with IPO

* Google forges ahead with IPO 08/15/2004 06:02 AM
Taipeitimes.com - Sun Aug 15, 08:53 am GMT

Google Pushes Ahead With IPO

Google Pushes Ahead With IPO 08/13/2004 09:16 AM
Search Engine Lowdown Aug 13 2004 1:27PM GMT

Google forges ahead with IPO

Google forges ahead with IPO 08/15/2004 02:39 AM
Taipei Times Online Aug 15 2004 5:52AM GMT

Wireless net stumbles ahead

Wireless net stumbles ahead 08/16/2004 12:54 AM
News.bbc.co.uk - Sun Aug 15, 07:08 am GMT

Eclipse Moves Ahead

Eclipse Moves Ahead 02/12/2004 03:37 PM
Developers praise its independence, give peek at 3.0 platform.

Cost-cutting keeps BT ahead

Cost-cutting keeps BT ahead 02/12/2004 10:18 PM
The Scotsman Feb 13 2004 2:40AM GMT

Better air quality warnings ahead

Better air quality warnings ahead 01/26/2004 11:06 PM
Britons with breathing problems should get improved warnings of poor air quality from a scientific collaboration.

LTO-3 bounces in ahead of schedule

LTO-3 bounces in ahead of schedule 08/16/2004 04:18 AM
Could it be third time lucky for Certance?

Munich to Go Ahead with Linux After All

Munich to Go Ahead with Linux After All 08/11/2004 03:16 PM

Grok Description matches for Warnaco Speedos Ahead
GrokA matches for Warnaco Speedos Ahead

Warnaco Speedos Ahead

The following phrases have been identified by the grok system as matching this entry: