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Ask HN: What Is a Silver Bullet?
We always see poping up in discussion threads that "XXX is no silver bullet" (XXX being anything like React, Docker, Lambda, Scrum, microservices...).
What are examples of silver bullets, direct and effortless solutions to long-standing problems?
- lugg 8y agoBy definition anything that solves all your problems, so subjectively there are none. I'm sure there are examples of things that solve many problems, while not silver bullets that might be the closest approximation. Is that more to what you're looking for with this post?
- DyslexicAtheist 8y agoIt was coined by Fred Brooks in his paper "No Silver Bullet – Essence and Accident in Software Engineering" https://faculty.salisbury.edu/~xswang/Research/Papers/SERelated/no-silver-bullet.pdf https://faculty.salisbury.edu/~xswang/Research/Papers/SERela... "There is no single development, in either technology or management technique, which by itself promises even one order-of-magnitude improvement within a decade in productivity, in reliability, in simplicity." to expand on @lugg's answer below any promise of a blanket solution (often bolted on top of poorly designed systems) that try to mitigate the problems (without solving the underlying cause) examples are too numerous really but the paper is well worth a read
- simonblack 8y agoPossibly a reference to the fictional 'vampires can only be killed if they're shot by a silver bullet' as normal lead bullets presumably aren't effective. Likewise, it must be a 'wooden' stake through the heart. Etc, etc. More or less it implies that there is only one effective solution to a problem, and that is what must be used if you want the problem to go away.