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Re: Don't Let Architecture Astronauts Scare You

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• Subject: Re: Don't Let Architecture Astronauts Scare You
• From: Matt Gushee <mgushee@h...>
• Date: Sat, 14 Sep 2002 20:37:34 -0600
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• Reply-to: Matt Gushee <mgushee@h...>
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On Sat, Sep 14, 2002 at 09:21:00PM -0400, Paul Brown wrote:
> 
> > "Remember that the architecture people are solving problems 
> > that they think they can solve, not problems which are useful
> > to solve."
> 
> There are five parts to solving a problem: (1) having a problem, (2)
> identifying a solvable subset with respect to time/complexity and
> total value, (3) inspiration, (4) creating a solution, (5) using it.
> I don't see any research/academic experience on the Joel's resume, so
> I'm not surprised that he's ignorant of the process of doing new work.

Okay, if your definition of 'new work' is academic or research work. I
would say Joel Spolsky knows quite a bit about solving real-world
problems, and about what works for users. He is the creator of CityDesk,
which has gotten rave reviews as an affordable and uncommonly
user-friendly content management tool for small websites. (see
http://www.fogcreek.com/CityDesk/) He has also written at least one
excellent book that I know of, _User Interface Design for Programmers_
(excellent in part because, unlike most geek books, it is no longer than
it needs to be).

As for your 'five parts,' I'm not sure how they relate to the statement
you are trying to refute, since his point was that some overzealous
system architects--eyes firmly fixed on the big picture--tend to solve
problems far beyond the rest of the world's perception, while
overlooking the little things that make a system valuable to users.
Which is fine if you're a computer science researcher, but deadly when
the task is to provide solutions to today's business problems.

> We are at the tail end of 3 with respect to web services in that we
> have a good idea of the lemmas that will be necessary to prove the
> desired result: the packaging and (re)use of well-defined hunks of
> functionality in a distributed, heterogeneous environment
> (hardware/software/connectivity).

Speak English, please.

-- 
Matt Gushee
Englewood, Colorado, USA
mgushee@h...
http://www.havenrock.com/

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