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"overall productivity" isn't necessarily the bar. If you're spending 1 hour a week managing git and you used to spend 10 hours a week managing zip files, it's a
by GrinningFool 3y ago
"overall productivity" isn't necessarily the bar. If you're spending 1 hour a week managing git and you used to spend 10 hours a week managing zip files, it's an order of magnitude improvement.
- kaba0 3y agoI get your point but, no, it’s not for the same reason Amdahl’s law exists: if you already weren’t taking any significant time on something, even cutting the whole thing out would give you negligible benefits.
- mtlynch 3y agoI'm not sure what you mean. If we're evaluating whether Brooks was correct in his "no silver bullet" prediction, then overall productivity is the bar because his prediction was about overall productivity of a dev team. I agree that git improves productivity over passing around zip files, but it doesn't disprove Brooks' prediction.
- GrinningFool 3y agoFair point, in the context of a silver bullet his intent was clearly to describe a single thing that improved productivity across the board. I had to go re-read the paper to reset my perspective.