I really enjoy reading blog articles from companies where they had a particular technical problem and how they solved it. It’s inspiring how they got to the problem and how creatively they solved it.
Sometimes developers (myself included) take these articles and start implementing the solution without having or understanding the problem fully. Big Company had this problem and our application will eventually also have this problem so why not implement the solution right now?
While it’s great seeing what technical problems other companies run into and how they solve it, it’s often better to tackle the problem if and when it arises. Changes are that your company, team, market and application are different than the company’s in the article. Use the solution to solve the problem, not to create them.
I have had situations where we had issues as a result of trying to implement the solution without having the initial problems. Those issue were a result of the trying to fit the solution to our situation.
Next time you come across one of those articles, ask yourself the hard questions. Do we have this problem right now and do we fully understand it? Would this solution work for us in our setup? Which problems will it introduce and how do we deal with them?
Sometimes developers (myself included) take these articles and start implementing the solution without having or understanding the problem fully. Big Company had this problem and our application will eventually also have this problem so why not implement the solution right now?
While it’s great seeing what technical problems other companies run into and how they solve it, it’s often better to tackle the problem if and when it arises. Changes are that your company, team, market and application are different than the company’s in the article. Use the solution to solve the problem, not to create them.
I have had situations where we had issues as a result of trying to implement the solution without having the initial problems. Those issue were a result of the trying to fit the solution to our situation.
Next time you come across one of those articles, ask yourself the hard questions. Do we have this problem right now and do we fully understand it? Would this solution work for us in our setup? Which problems will it introduce and how do we deal with them?