The search for productivity or procrastination for developers?
I love playing with new languages and learning new things. I’m a commited lifehacker too. But are there times when searching for that next best hack is in itself a form of procrastination?
choices and fear
Choice is the first area this pops up. Which language is better groovy or scala? Should I use lift or wicket? Intellij or eclipse? Vim or textmate? Remember The milk or Toodledo? And the list goes on.
Sure, these are great questions to ask. An architect who hasn’t carefully considered what web framework to pick is not worth his salt. And a developer who spends his life inputting keys should use a good text editor. But my experience shows that people often ask these questions after they have made their choice. Not because they are really missing anything but because “The grass seems greener on the other side of the fence”. Especially when some big feature is waiting to get done.
One week into a python web project. “Maybe I should be learning ruby instead, Are there actually any current popular sites running python?”.
400 users into a rails project. “Maybe we should port the whole thing to java and mongodb? Twitter certainly showed ruby doesn’t scale”.
Stackoverflow is full of these questions. I know because I frequent them often. Yet I can’t help but notice an underlying pattern. A fear of missing out, of ‘betting on the wrong horse’.
Rework
In business, too many people obsess over tools, software tricks, scaling issues, fancy office space, lavish furniture, and other frivolities instead of what really matters. And what really matters is how to actually get customers and make money.
You also see it in people who want to blog, podcast, or shoot videos for their business but get hung up on which tools to use. The content is what matters. You can spend tons on fancy equipment, but if you've got nothing to say ... well, you've got nothing to say.
Use whatever you've got already or can afford cheaply. Then go. It's not the gear that matters. It's playing what you've got as well as you can. Your tone is in your fingers.
Imagine if DHH (maker of rails) would have sat there asking himself these questions all day. What if we get huge, ruby is really slow, I need to find a language that scales. Will I get a job with this, hardly anyone uses or knows ruby, I'm committing career suicide.
You get what you ask for! Even more so with a highly creative mind. So next time you see these ‘fearful’ questions popup try to find the source. And replace them with more positive alternatives.
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
