How overthinking and scope creep sabotage software projects
By
alcazar
Kettled twice. Extra chewy, extra trustworthy.
Summary
The article discusses how overthinking, scope creep, and structural diffing can sabotage software projects. The author contrasts two approaches to project execution: diving in and building vs. researching prior art which leads to expanding scope and getting stuck. The piece explores the tension between wanting to build something new versus building on existing solutions, and how excessive analysis can prevent shipping.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledI think, 'I should look for prior art'. There's a lot of prior art, dealing with a much broader scope than I'd originally imagined.
I start to wonder if I should incorporate that scope. Or perhaps try to build my thing on top of the existing
When I have an idea for a project, it tends to go in one of these two directions: I just do it, or I overthink it.
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