Kicking the Complexity Habit • Dan North • GOTO 2014

This presentation was recorded at GOTO Chicago 2014
gotochgo.com
Dan North - Agile Troublemaker, Developer, Originator of BDD ‪@daniel-terhorst-north‬
ABSTRACT
Without rigorous care and attention software quickly becomes messy and unmanageable. Even with the best intentions entropy and complexity are a fact of life in growing applications. As in many other contexts it is easier to tackle the symptoms than the cause. Systems Thinking calls this behaviour "Shifting the Burden" and it is more widespread than you might think. From your IDE to your automated build, from DDD’s ACLs to TDD and other TLAs, from backlogs to burn-ups, we are surrounded by props for coping with complexity. As appealing as these are, they also make us less likely to address the underlying problem of complexity itself. Dan believes you can learn to recognise these coping mechanisms for what they are, and intends to set you on the path to simplicating your programming life.
Download slides and read the full abstract here:
gotocon.com/chicago-2014/prese...
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[@jamiebertram9744]

Jeez, who edited this?? 😕

[@donwald3436]

Anyone have the slides? Link is now dead.

[@GOTO-]

Hi Don, here you go: gotocon.com/dl/goto-chicago-2014/slides/DanNorth_KickingTheComplexityHabit.pdf

[@jensBendig]

I see long methods. Some of those dig through a cognition complexity to get a simple thing done. (get() can be a very long algorithm) Other methods I see, dig through a cognition complexity and then delegate to another cognition complexity. Cognition complexity is a new word for an old thing. It was called "workaround "before. So, what is making it complicated? Complication is, when the concept lacks or does not fit the problem.

[@tobytoor6605]

great vid

[@FrenchPirate83]

The first asker sounds like Jessica Kerr...

[@BryonLape]

I really hate Scrum(TM).

[@HeilTec]

To the editor: Failure to show the relevant images during the talk will frustrate the online audience if the are just a little bit like me. To the speaker: Great talk. History lesson - Old days are primitive and not living up to the standards of today.

[@strictnonconformist7369]

The value of the presented material is greatly diminished by the idiot videorecording/editing that largely focused on showing the presenter’s face without giving a damn in many cases about showing the information on the screen. I hope at least they provided closed captions for those that need it, because vision isn’t served well by this video editing.

[@andik70]

Nowadays it is about emotions and not content.

[@leekang8751]

“Shifting the burden”. Just thinking about trump now and how the government has the same issue.