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Pretty much everything the author is talking about applies to the switching cost of picking up a new language, tool, or framework. The time spent to find all th

Pretty much everything the author is talking about applies to the switching cost of picking up a new language, tool, or framework. The time spent to find all the little gotchas and so on is always bigger than you estimate. This is why a lot of people learn a tech stack like Java, PHP, Rails, C#, Django, etc. and stick with it for so long. Even if the new thing offers awesome benefits, it comes with a lot of those hidden things you have to re-learn and re-invent over and over again.

thenomad 13y ago
Author of the article here: I absolutely agree with you. I also do quite a bit of web development, and I've encountered these issues in both contexts - notably a few years ago when I got very excited about Rails. These days I do most of my web-side work in PHP precisely because it's the language I've been using for years, and thus I'm more aware of the hidden bumps in the road.
ykl 13y ago
This is why retooling a pipeline at an animation or VFX studio is so mind-bogglingly complex and difficult. The analogy I've heard before is imagine not only rebuilding an airplane while its flying and trying to make sure the passengers don't notice, but sometimes also making the tools that you're rebuilding the airplane with from scratch as well.
- thenomad 13y ago
  I've only worked with smaller indie studios directly, but yes, that's an excellent analogy!
bsenftner 13y ago
This is also why the accomplished and well known film makers tend to always work with the same crew. Check out IMDB crews of our major film makers, and its the same teams over and over again. They develop their own pipeline and repeat as long as they are successful and able to continue making films. It's too complex otherwise. It's this way for any collaborative, complex system. We're not making products, folks, we are making teams that make products, hoping to build the right team we can build and release successful products with over and over again for the rest of our lives.

thenomad 13y ago

Author of the article here: I absolutely agree with you. I also do quite a bit of web development, and I've encountered these issues in both contexts - notably a few years ago when I got very excited about Rails. These days I do most of my web-side work in PHP precisely because it's the language I've been using for years, and thus I'm more aware of the hidden bumps in the road.

ykl 13y ago

This is why retooling a pipeline at an animation or VFX studio is so mind-bogglingly complex and difficult. The analogy I've heard before is imagine not only rebuilding an airplane while its flying and trying to make sure the passengers don't notice, but sometimes also making the tools that you're rebuilding the airplane with from scratch as well.

thenomad 13y ago
I've only worked with smaller indie studios directly, but yes, that's an excellent analogy!

bsenftner 13y ago

This is also why the accomplished and well known film makers tend to always work with the same crew. Check out IMDB crews of our major film makers, and its the same teams over and over again. They develop their own pipeline and repeat as long as they are successful and able to continue making films. It's too complex otherwise. It's this way for any collaborative, complex system. We're not making products, folks, we are making teams that make products, hoping to build the right team we can build and release successful products with over and over again for the rest of our lives.