I’ve fallen deeply for jazz over the past few years. The turning point was when I discovered how much fantastic, boundary-pushing new music is released every week. It’s difficult (in the best way possible) to keep up with it all.
Reading an interview with saxophonist Ivo Perelman, I was dumbfounded by this: “Twelve albums this year – what has made this year so productive?”
Twelve albums in a year!
The jazz approach to releasing recordings is remarkably different from the rest of the music industry. Artists release live performances and studio sessions frequently, often multiple in a year. Many are part of a handful of groups and also contribute to a wide range of projects.
Part of that is likely due to the difficult economics of jazz, but I find the pace, creativity, and experimentation exhilarating. Record, release, and move on.
Contrast that with Radiohead, who released nine albums in 23 years. There are fantastic albums in there, but guitarist Jonny Greenwood wanted to do more.
Reading an interview with saxophonist Ivo Perelman, I was dumbfounded by this: “Twelve albums this year – what has made this year so productive?”
Twelve albums in a year!
The jazz approach to releasing recordings is remarkably different from the rest of the music industry. Artists release live performances and studio sessions frequently, often multiple in a year. Many are part of a handful of groups and also contribute to a wide range of projects.
Part of that is likely due to the difficult economics of jazz, but I find the pace, creativity, and experimentation exhilarating. Record, release, and move on.
Contrast that with Radiohead, who released nine albums in 23 years. There are fantastic albums in there, but guitarist Jonny Greenwood wanted to do more.
I’m the most impatient of everybody in Radiohead. I’ve always said I’d much rather the records were 90 percent as good, but come out twice as often, or whatever the maths works out on that. I’ve always felt that, the closer to the finish, the smaller the changes are that anyone would notice... I’m always impatient to get on and do more.
Tellingly, Greenwood and Thom Yorke formed The Smile in 2021 and have released three studio albums and a concert in four years.
Some are prolific, others perfect. One approach isn’t superior to the other. Robert Caro has famously written six books in 50 years. He’s been working on the seventh for 12 years. No one would dare ask him to work in another way.
In software, though, more of us struggle with projects taking too long, than shipping too often. Scope expands, feedback brings doubt, past decisions are revisited, and you start to wonder if it will ever ship.
If you want to ship more next year, Shape Up can help. As David writes in Seven Shipping Principles:
One of Shape Up’s key concepts is the appetite. Projects are kicked off on a premise that they’re only worth doing if a good version of their pitch can be done within 2, 4, or 6 weeks.
The time constraint imposed by the appetite is meant to force trade-offs and concessions. To curb the ambition that naturally turns every idea into a project that drags on forever by people drawn to perfection.
A healthy impatience is the first ingredient to shipping frequently. But the second is equally important: embracing constraints and trade-offs. Greenwood admits that the albums would have to be 90% as good if they wanted to release more. Everyone will have their own take on whether that trade-off would be worth it, but critically, he recognizes that there is one.
When teams are told to ship faster, but don't own the project, can't trim scope, have to work through a series of checkpoints in order to ship, and are held accountable for upfront estimates that account for every possibility, the result is frustration and failure.
At our last all-hands of the year, we briefly look back at the highlights. Tasked with summing up what the web team of five designers and six programmers accomplished, I felt like the journalist interviewing Ivo Perelman. They worked on seven products this year, released roughly 50 significant features, shipped hundreds of bug fixes and small improvements, and contributed to a number of open source projects. The story is the same for our Mobile, Ops, SIP (Security, Infrastructure, and Performance), Customer Support, and Marketing teams. It’s difficult (in the best way possible) to keep up with it all.
It's astonishing what autonomous two-person teams, given shaped, fixed time/variable scope projects can accomplish.
If you're impatient to get on and do more, pick a team, pick a project, and try it.