Idea Dump
- In The 7 Habits, Stephen Covey says that the difference between principles and values is that principles are external to us – they are axioms, fundamental laws – whereas values are something that we choose to live our lives by, or practice some activity by – sometimes based on identified principles.
- Steve McConnell said in a podcast that he’d rewritten the table of contents of Frederick Brooks’ The Mythical Man Month, and found that it is mainly about documentation.
- I’ve been thinking about Martin Fowler’s claim that “a few high ability (and expensive) people will be much more productive than many low ability (cheap) developers.” The folks at 37signals might not agree (PDF; says “I’ll take someone happy and average over a guy who is disgruntled and frustrated”). And what Fowler says it at odds with, it seems to me, the idea that it is the right mix of people that matters. Diversity as a booster of creativity, etc.
- I liked what Clay Shirky said in Ontology is Overrated: “Does the world make sense or do we make sense of the world?” It’s probably a quote, but of whom?
- McConnell again (same podcast); he claimed that Extreme Programming is more akin to “evolutionary prototyping” than “evolutionary deliveries” – two types of approaches/models he’s identified in Rapid Development. I don’t know how he defines these two, but judging by the terms alone, I’d say that “evolutionary deliveries” is the one that feels closest to XP.