🧠 The Human Factors
Gerald M. Weinberg once said:
No matter what the problem is, it's always a people problem. — Gerald M. Weinberg
At its heart, release-first addresses the human element:
- Our propensity to procrastinate in getting releases out.
- Our fear that something might be broken in the release.
- Our tendency to think short-term instead of long-term.
- Our tendency to rush on to the next feature before finishing the one we started.
- Our tendency to skip tests when writing code.
- Our OCD in needing to perfect something before anyone else can see it.
- And the list goes on ad infinitum ...
Release-first at its core is a way to address human weaknesses. It is a simple tweak in our behavior that anyone can do. It is a language that everyone can understand. It can be measured by anyone without fancy tools. It is so absurdly simple that most people will write it off as "obvious" or "too simple" and instead reach to the merchants of complexity. But true effectiveness comes when we reduce things to the simplest form possible, and remove all the accidental complexity.
