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Move Fast (and Break Things) is the unwritten motto of every mediocre dev shop out there (breaking things being an unintended side effect of moving fast). It's

by pm 12y ago

Move Fast (and Break Things) is the unwritten motto of every mediocre dev shop out there (breaking things being an unintended side effect of moving fast). It's not controversial.

pshin45 12y ago
> ...is the unwritten motto... Exactly, it's unwritten because no dev shop would explicitly market themselves as being willing to break things in the name of speed. It's an unfortunate side effect that they don't want to call attention to, whereas Facebook wears it as a badge of honor.
- nahname 12y ago
  Facebook, where the users are the QA department
  - mapleoin 12y ago
    This is the most important point here. Facebook can afford to do this because their users don't care. No one really needs Facebook or depends on it to work at critical times. Most products are not like that. Imagine what happened if Gmail started doing move fast and break things. Oops some of your email vanished.
    - Bahamut 12y ago
      On the contrary, I have to believe they do care. Many here might not remember or know, but early on, Facebook was very unstable due to the sheer server load. Performance is still an important metric for them. It is why they created HHVM, Hack, and React.js. How often do you hear of Facebook going down or breaking completely?
      - madeofpalk 12y ago
        I agree, remember Twitter? It started getting popular quite a while ago, but servers couldn't handle the load which lead to a lot of down time. Eventually, users just left twitter and they shut down the site a year later.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - Kiro 12y ago
    You say it like it's a bad thing.
- pm 12y ago
  Sure, break things when you're trying out a lot of new features. I get that, and for the user-facing side of Facebook, it makes sense. It doesn't make sense (and is extremely frustrating) when you apply the same principle to your third-party APIs.
dominotw 12y ago
It is perhaps controversial for people at the top not for a dev.
nickik 12y ago
Its also the motto of many good companys. At least in my mind, move fast and break things, means that you iterate quickly and move into testing fast, to find the errors there. This works of course better with exerimental APIs compared to things you have to put on CD and ship.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  This is the problem with such mottos. "Move fast and break things" means exactly that, i.e. move fast and break things. It's just a catchy soundbite, nothing else. It's up to every one of us to fill in the missing meaning; therefore everyone arrives at interpretations he/she likes, which might not be the same interpretation as anyone elses.
- pm 12y ago
  Perhaps, but when it's applied companywide, it's a bad idea.
- seanp2k2 12y ago
  And in the "ships CDs" camp, we have Adobe and Microsoft, long held as bastions of robust, stable, well-tested software.
  - godzilla82 12y ago
    There are other camps too. Like software consulting firms building software for large enterprises like banks, insurance companies etc. The consequences of breaking things are all written down in very exact legal terms. It is not at all fun when a regression bug shows up.
dnissley 12y ago
As is Move Slow (and Break Nothing)
Joeri 12y ago
The irony is that moving fast is itself a side effect of breaking things. I've noticed that if you prioritize speed at the expense of quality, you get neither, but when you prioritize quality you tend to get both.

by pm 12y ago

Move Fast (and Break Things) is the unwritten motto of every mediocre dev shop out there (breaking things being an unintended side effect of moving fast). It's not controversial.

pshin45 12y ago

> ...is the unwritten motto... Exactly, it's unwritten because no dev shop would explicitly market themselves as being willing to break things in the name of speed. It's an unfortunate side effect that they don't want to call attention to, whereas Facebook wears it as a badge of honor.

nahname 12y ago
Facebook, where the users are the QA department
- mapleoin 12y ago
  This is the most important point here. Facebook can afford to do this because their users don't care. No one really needs Facebook or depends on it to work at critical times. Most products are not like that. Imagine what happened if Gmail started doing move fast and break things. Oops some of your email vanished.
  - Bahamut 12y ago
    On the contrary, I have to believe they do care. Many here might not remember or know, but early on, Facebook was very unstable due to the sheer server load. Performance is still an important metric for them. It is why they created HHVM, Hack, and React.js. How often do you hear of Facebook going down or breaking completely?
    - madeofpalk 12y ago
      I agree, remember Twitter? It started getting popular quite a while ago, but servers couldn't handle the load which lead to a lot of down time. Eventually, users just left twitter and they shut down the site a year later.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- Kiro 12y ago
  You say it like it's a bad thing.
pm 12y ago
Sure, break things when you're trying out a lot of new features. I get that, and for the user-facing side of Facebook, it makes sense. It doesn't make sense (and is extremely frustrating) when you apply the same principle to your third-party APIs.

dominotw 12y ago

It is perhaps controversial for people at the top not for a dev.

nickik 12y ago

Its also the motto of many good companys. At least in my mind, move fast and break things, means that you iterate quickly and move into testing fast, to find the errors there. This works of course better with exerimental APIs compared to things you have to put on CD and ship.

TeMPOraL 12y ago
This is the problem with such mottos. "Move fast and break things" means exactly that, i.e. move fast and break things. It's just a catchy soundbite, nothing else. It's up to every one of us to fill in the missing meaning; therefore everyone arrives at interpretations he/she likes, which might not be the same interpretation as anyone elses.
pm 12y ago
Perhaps, but when it's applied companywide, it's a bad idea.
seanp2k2 12y ago
And in the "ships CDs" camp, we have Adobe and Microsoft, long held as bastions of robust, stable, well-tested software.
- godzilla82 12y ago
  There are other camps too. Like software consulting firms building software for large enterprises like banks, insurance companies etc. The consequences of breaking things are all written down in very exact legal terms. It is not at all fun when a regression bug shows up.

dnissley 12y ago

As is Move Slow (and Break Nothing)

Joeri 12y ago

The irony is that moving fast is itself a side effect of breaking things. I've noticed that if you prioritize speed at the expense of quality, you get neither, but when you prioritize quality you tend to get both.