Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Simplicity

“Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.”

Edsger W. Dijkstra  

He wrote an all time classic book on programming called "A Discipline of Programming".

I have not done much programming for a long time but most of the same principles apply today as applied when Dijkstra wrote his book.  In his book he emphasizes common sense.

Programming is one area that complexity kills.  The greater the complexity, the greater the chance of error, the more difficulty to make changes and the less scalable things become.

The biggest mistake most companies and programmers make that I see is programming before planning.  I have a huge sense of urgency and want to get things done.  But in product development, it is best to plan more and better and program less.

I also see a failure of many companies to sell.  Many tech start ups are lead by founders who are strong on tech and product management but lack sales interest.  Nothing like sales to real customers to keep a product relevant.

I can see some of the programming principles can apply to my life organization.  Simplify to live easier.

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I saw an interesting TED talk on athletic performance.  People are not getting faster and stronger but technology is improving.

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And my new favorite website for marketing and startup tips is growthhackers.com.




1 comment:

  1. I resonate with what you said about programming principles applying to life organizations. From my experience in geeking out with tech during my upbringing I observed the technological evolution as a progressing manifestation that mirrors existing life organizations.

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