Joel on Software - Fire And Motion. Quote: "I remembered this for a long time. I noticed how almost every kind of military strategy, from air force dogfights to large scale naval maneuvers, is based on the idea of Fire and Motion. It took me another fifteen years to realize that the principle of Fire and Motion is how you get things done in life. You have to move forward a little bit, every day. It doesn't matter if your code is lame and buggy and nobody wants it. If you are moving forward, writing code and fixing bugs constantly, time is on your side. Watch out when your competition fires at you. Do they just want to force you to keep busy reacting to their volleys, so you can't move forward?"

Comment: Via Duncan [Serious Instructional Technology]

Interesting piece on a couple of dimensions. First, it's one of the few things I've seen on the emotional challenges of knowledge work. Joel doesn't call it that, but that's one of the topics he addresses. If you're expected to do creative thinking and work, don't expect to accomplish 8 hours of day of it, day in and day out.  But do expect to feel guilty about not doing it and to wonder whether you're the only one who isn't being productive (whatever that might actually mean relative to creative/knowlege wor).

Second, it offers interesting insight into the nature of competing in technology driven markets. The strategy of "fire and motion" nicely describes the basic approach of many successful technology firms.

4:52:49 PM •  • comment