Plan thoughtfully and execute with humility
On Facebook, Jim Mattis, and the problem with an impulsive attraction to speed
Facebook's computer-engineering mantra for a long time was Mark Zuckerberg's rallying cry to "Move fast and break things". It's catchy, and it sounds like the kind of attitude that gets results. But even at Facebook, the motto quickly outlived its usefulness, and it gave way (in 2014) to the much less mellifluous "Move fast with stable infrastructure". Zuckerberg himself may not have matured much, but his product had to.
■ "Move fast and break things" may have impressed the sort of minds that are impressed by mere pithiness, but it was bad practice even when Zuckerberg initially made it his slogan. Complex systems are always to be handled with care: Is there a backup plan in place? Have critical processes, settings, and data been archived safely in case a reversion is needed? Are there checkpoints and validation steps along the way to make sure that dependencies aren't inadvertently broken? Does everyone on the team have an understanding of what results will indicate success or failure? Has security been designed into the process and into the final product?
■ All are vital questions to ask in the process of making significant changes -- not only in computing, but in any other process involving more than a handful of people. Speed can be a virtue -- "Speed equals success", in the words of Jim Mattis -- but successful tactical speed is virtually always the result of strategic prudence. An army (or a Marine division) can punch quickly into enemy territory, but it had better not do so without planning and forethought around matters like the supply lines that ensure food, fuel, and bullets make their way to the front line.
■ A bias in favor of impulsive speed isn't a virtue. "Move fast and break things" is a battle cry of emotional immaturity, combining an overconfidence in one's own raw intelligence, an underappreciation of unforeseen consequences, and a potentially devastating lack of intellectual humility. Computer systems can be both powerful and amazingly responsive, so it's no surprise that people who spend lots of time around them can fall into a sort of God complex. But they also need to know better.
■ The things we can create with our massive human brains can quickly become even more complex than any one of us can fully understand. People who prioritize speed above all and disregard the fragility of the innumerable complex systems around us put themselves and others at great risk. To those minds that only respond to simple turns of phrase, consider this: Plan thoughtfully and execute with humility.
