Comment by Melanie Sumner on "I am Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob). Ask me anything."

CommentI am Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob). Ask me anything.

Melanie Sumner

Software Engineer

Jan 24, 2019

I frequently observe young(er) developers trying to sell me something we tried 20 years ago but abandoned for various reasons (especially in web development). I want to find a good way to encourage experimentation, but at the same time, I feel like the industry is continually trying to reinvent the wheel. How do you deal with hype? Do you recommend software professionals stay out of the hype cycle, or lean into it?

Robert Martin

Uncle Bob

Jan 24, 2019

The hype cycle is very real, very distracting, and very annoying. I strongly recommend assessing each "new" thing to come along, and then ignoring those that are just restatements of past ideas.

So, for example, microservices are not a bad idea; but there's been too much hype about them. They are an old idea that has a place, but programmers should not simply be leaping into microservices just because they are "new". Older programmers need to calm everyone down and remind them of the costs of creating hundreds of little services. Those costs are not trivial.

Melanie Sumner

Software Engineer

Jan 24, 2019

Thank you for the advice!

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