Starting With the Problem or Technology?

Few years back, I attended a project meeting where there was a discussion about the new technology that we were using for the project. The senior developer proposed that, there is one concept in that new technology which is a good feature, and we should use that. Immediately, the manager said, "No. No. No. We cannot use all those. We don't have enough time for all those things. We will just deliver the basic things for this release, and we will see those for the next release." After that both the manager and the senior developer aborted that concept in that technology.

After few days, I used the same concept in the same release. Neither the manager nor the senior developer knew it. (Because, I did not tell, and there was no need to tell.)

For the functionality that I was working on, I felt that, using that concept was more efficient, and I used it. If that concept was not efficient for my functionality, I would not have used it. You should use a concept/technology, if that solves your problem efficiently, and you should not use it, if it does not solve. The statements, "We will use this technology" and "We will not use this technology" in isolation does not make any sense.

Whenever you want to do anything, you have to start with the problem and find the best approach rather than, starting with a technology and aligning that to solve your problem. This may look funny, but, unfortunately, I have seen many people who start with the technology rather than with the problem.

By the way, I still use 40 years old VI editor, and I am very happy with that.