A Software Fable

Gather 'round, kids. It's story time. There's so few fables written nowadays, and few of them would apply to software (if you read between the lines). So here goes.

Once upon a time, there were two groups of engineers out for a walk. They came upon a creek, and, being engineers, decided to dam the creek. The first group set to work immediately measuring the depth and width of the creek, calculating flow rates and how high the water would rise once dammed. The second group looked at the creek and started throwing rocks into it. The first group, having taken all their measurements, set off to carve a rock big enough to block the creek. They left the second group still throwing rocks into the creek.

Time passed, and the second group came back with their huge rock. But unfortunately for them, the rain had turned the creek into a raging river and their rock was still not big enough! Or it would have been a raging river if it was flowing. To their surprise, they saw a dam built out of the rocks that the second group had been throwing! The first group was amazed that something so big had been build by so many little rocks. They went and asked the second group how they did it. The second group said "Some of us looked for more rocks to put in a pile, and the rest of us threw the rocks from the pile onto the dam. So while you were measuring and calculating, we were already solving the problem. If anything goes wrong with the dam, we just need to throw more rocks. If it rains more, we just need to throw more rocks. You need to carve a whole new rock."

Many morals apply to this story: do the simplest thing that could possibly work, don't over-engineer the solution. But the one I like is this: if you leave engineers in the woods for too long, this kind of thing is bound to happen.