Grow To Where We’re Going

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As developers, we don't deliver just code. We deliver change in the world.

• The value of software is in its connections to the wider system: in its use.
• Growth never stops until death; software is “done” when it’s out of production.
• We don’t grow -in- an environment; we grow -with- an environment. Influence is healthier than control.
• Teams are like forests. The whole forest is communicating underground through a network of roots and fungi. The essence of a team’s work is out of sight, in
• the knowledge we exchange with each other and embed into the software.
• Developers are like trees in a forest. Sometimes management can’t see the “team” for the “resources.”
• Trees are green because intensity isn’t everything. To go fast is less important than to keep going.

Q&A

Question: I've often thought addressing tech debt in a system is like tending a garden. You'll have a more productive garden if you weed it regularly.

Answer: yes! Eric Evans has a good talk about software gardening, too

Question: Do you have an interest in biology that formed the seed (see what I did there) of this talk? Or did you look around for parallels to software development and found biology?

Answer: oh fun question. I have an interest in systems thinking, and that often leads to ecology. This one came out of a paper about using plant growth as a model for robotics.

Link: jessitron.com/plants

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