Nikhil's new blogpost, "Get Weird And Disappear"
Truly weak practitioners will come to you with totally degenerate rules or principles. This is the "no swearing" publisher, but it is also the "no dogs" landlord, the "no risk" security guy, the "must have ten years of Git experience" recruiter and I've no doubt that everyone reading this can think of at least one system where they've thought "I can't believe I'm at the mercy of a person that isn't even thinking". Frequently their rules are not even rules, they're just phrases that competent people used to say, and eventually they became well-known enough to become fake-able signal.
Data-driven. Garbage in, garbage out. Agile. All of these may have previously signalled novel thought, and now anyone that's really savvy does their best to not use the phrases because they know how tacky it makes them look, even if they actually use them in meaningful ways.
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Guess what though, whether or not people point and laugh, they certainly aren't going to pay your rent for you. Who gives a fuck about embarrassment?
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It is remarkable how many companies seem to forget that the ultimate value is arguably Working Software, and while all the subsidiary principles may fall out of Working Software when you shake it very hard, you can't do away with it. Why calculate velocity if you know you aren't shipping, scrumlords?