Debate Driven Development - (that 3 letter acronym is taken)
I was reminded today of the value of debate, strongly held opinions and having the courage to let go of weakly held opinions. I like to think of the latter of these three as the ability to liberally contradict oneself when it becomes clear that a position held no longer seems able to be supported and the only logical course is accepting another point of view which has stood up to the rigours or test of the debate.
The best experiences I have had always seem to take root in groups (even as small as two) where debate of ideas were frequent and encouraged. Further to that, protagonists exhibit an ability to come to the debate without ego and a willingness to leave a position previously held when the debates logical outcome cannot support their position. I have in the past witnessed what I call the ‘developers mother Teresa effect‘ where a developer will hold on to their position when all else seems lost, purely out of a need to save it’s soul.
What was fantastic about today’s debate was that it started out around a single issue and flowed into a much broader discussion that lead to a great number of issues and solutions that had not yet been considered much less understood. So what started as a debate over a single topic ended with an array of solutions to a number of issues that were previously hidden - a very positive outcome all in all. Along the way we argued (debated) our viewpoints strongly but never was their hint of dying for a cause borne out of it’s ownership. In some small way it reminded me of TDD, in the sense that as a group we were able navigate an outcome from testing our opinions and ideas, in the same vein as one discovers the design of code through testing.
