Everyone who at least once tried to participate in a mountain expedition should know that planing is useless. Everything is changing each half of hour, and what you do is adapting and correcting your assumptions on the go.
Of course you need some preparation, like getting warm clothes and stuff, but what would you actually wear you will know only right before the moment you're leaving the camp.
And it takes planning to ensure that you have all the different types of warm clothing that may be required to face as many of the possible conditions on that mountain as possible.
Of course, there are limits on how much you can take, and planning can help determine those limits (so that you don't end preparing for the tail ends of a distribution of possible scenarios and end up carrying a heavy burden).
There is always a give and take relationship in preparing for possible scenarios and the resources one can afford to spend for those possibilities.
I'm just trying to emphasize that actual experience is much more important than any amount of planing.
Moreover, planning if it was about top-down time-scheduling is useless, because you cannot foresee anything.
What most programmers do - it is like a planning an expedition without any experience using lonely-planet and internet for estimations - just a wasting of a time.
No amount of planning can replace your own personal experience, but with a lot of experience you don't need planing - you're just doing.
Not trying to be an asshole here, but love pushing logic.
I would definitely agree that the importance of experience can never be emphasized enough. The more the better, always.
But, even if one were to over simplify this, at the least, it is a trifecta of experience, planning and the complexity/scope of the task/goal.
If one were doing what the facebook team did at the start, a bunch of friends, coding non stop for days on end, bringing in formal planning would be the most idiotic thing. (but if one were to be anal about it, even that takes some ad-hoc, seat of the pants planning - what features to have, what algorithms to develop, blablabla)
But for the same facebook to keep growing at 500 mil users +, providing increased features (not to mention, deciding what features to provide in the short, mid or long term) while employing geographically distributed teams, it is impossible to go without planning. Make note, I mention 'planning' not 'plans'.
The same goes with what a team of one is trying to accomplish, depending on the complexity and scope of the goal with respect to that person's relative experience.
As Eiserhower said, "plans are useless, but planning indispensable" (or something like that). I can go on explaining why those words are so meaningful, but that did be a monologue and I am trying to get out of that habit :)
Don't you have to plan in order to prepare? And part of planning is using the prior knowledge of people who have experienced things that empower them to plan better.
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Such a bold headline.. ^_^
Everyone who at least once tried to participate in a mountain expedition should know that planing is useless. Everything is changing each half of hour, and what you do is adapting and correcting your assumptions on the go.
Of course you need some preparation, like getting warm clothes and stuff, but what would you actually wear you will know only right before the moment you're leaving the camp.
And of course, you never know when. ^_^
And it takes planning to ensure that you have all the different types of warm clothing that may be required to face as many of the possible conditions on that mountain as possible.
Of course, there are limits on how much you can take, and planning can help determine those limits (so that you don't end preparing for the tail ends of a distribution of possible scenarios and end up carrying a heavy burden).
There is always a give and take relationship in preparing for possible scenarios and the resources one can afford to spend for those possibilities.
I'm just trying to emphasize that actual experience is much more important than any amount of planing.
Moreover, planning if it was about top-down time-scheduling is useless, because you cannot foresee anything.
What most programmers do - it is like a planning an expedition without any experience using lonely-planet and internet for estimations - just a wasting of a time.
No amount of planning can replace your own personal experience, but with a lot of experience you don't need planing - you're just doing.
Not trying to be an asshole here, but love pushing logic.
I would definitely agree that the importance of experience can never be emphasized enough. The more the better, always.
But, even if one were to over simplify this, at the least, it is a trifecta of experience, planning and the complexity/scope of the task/goal.
If one were doing what the facebook team did at the start, a bunch of friends, coding non stop for days on end, bringing in formal planning would be the most idiotic thing. (but if one were to be anal about it, even that takes some ad-hoc, seat of the pants planning - what features to have, what algorithms to develop, blablabla)
But for the same facebook to keep growing at 500 mil users +, providing increased features (not to mention, deciding what features to provide in the short, mid or long term) while employing geographically distributed teams, it is impossible to go without planning. Make note, I mention 'planning' not 'plans'.
The same goes with what a team of one is trying to accomplish, depending on the complexity and scope of the goal with respect to that person's relative experience.
As Eiserhower said, "plans are useless, but planning indispensable" (or something like that). I can go on explaining why those words are so meaningful, but that did be a monologue and I am trying to get out of that habit :)
Don't you have to plan in order to prepare? And part of planning is using the prior knowledge of people who have experienced things that empower them to plan better.