A few weeks ago, I was chatting with the guys in the office about the number of different messaging services there are: messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Skype etc, etc. I was bemoaning the fact that I had to download each one in order to be able to communicate with my friends because they all used a different one. “Why can’t there just be one thing that I can get that crosses all of these?” I cried. And they shook their heads and sent me this:
When I stopped laughing, they pointed out that the real question everyone had to ask when embarking on a project was:
Does your solution add to the problem?
In the same week, I had been reading about Nick Herbert and the ReplyASAP app he had developed to stop his son ignoring messages. Whichever side of the fence you sit on with this app (personally, I think my kids would kill me if I even considered subjecting them to something like this whereas my husband thinks it’s a great idea), the fact remains that Nick developed an android app and his son has an iOS phone. These situations serve to emphasise that what is key is actually ensuring good solid architecture of projects to make sure that your solution is fit for purpose and doesn’t add to the problem.
So many systems that set out to simplify a task ending up actually complicating things. Take a step back and remember, just because we can doesn’t always mean we should. And the simplest solution is usually the best solution.
