Surviving the Framework Hype Cycle

Baskin Robbins wishes it had as many flavors as there are JS frameworks, build tools, and cool new “low-level” languages. You just want to solve a problem, not have a 500-framework bake-off! And how will you know whether you picked the right one? Don’t flip that table, because we’ll use the “hype cycle” and the history of Ruby and Rails as a guide to help you understand which front-end and back-end technologies are a fit for your needs, wants, and career now and in the future.

Presented at RailsConf, May 5, 2016

Transcript

1. WELCOME TO THE NAP TRACK Please respect the sleep needs of those around you
2. Hello from Austin, TX the breakfast taco capital of the universe
3. DOCKERIZING YOUR REACT CONTAINER: WHY WHAT YOU KNOW IS SOOO 5 MINUTES AGO
4. SORRY, THAT’S OVER.
5. WEBPACKING YOUR ELM KUBERNETES: WHY WHAT YOU KNOW IS SOOO 11 SECONDS AGO
6. SO YEAH.
7. Let’s talk about mid-life crises.
8. HELLO THERE. THIS IS MY DAD THIS IS HIS FANNY PACK
9. BUT THIS IS HIS MID-LIFE CRISIS THIS IS NOT MY DAD
10. The web developer’s career is entering an endless mid-life crisis.
11. A word of comfort A word of caution
12. YEAH, IT’S GOT VIRTUAL DOM HEY, COOL JS FRAMEWORK
13. BRANDON HAYS @tehviking “We do chicken right!”
16. I first noticed these patterns learning Ember.
17. A prediction for those trying to stay up on the latest web technologies
18. -My prediction? PAIN.
19. PAIN POINT 1: It’s impossible to keep up with new tools.
22. PAIN POINT 1: YOU CAN’T KEEP UP WITH NEW TOOLS Choice Paralysis
23. The Tech Treadmill
24. PAIN POINT 2: New stuff can’t live up to expectations.
25. OMG OMG OMG
26. SPOILER ALERT IT WAS ALIENS
27. New tech: Week 2
28. PAIN POINT 3: The technology you love is now obsolete.
31. Pour one out for Rails
35. Alas, poor Tomster, we hardly knew ye
38. WHAT IF I TOLD YOU THIS IS ENTIRELY PREDICTABLE
39. The Hype Cycle PLATEAU OF PRODUCTIVITY SLOPE OF ENLIGHTENMENT TROUGH OF DISILLUSIONMENT TECHNOLOGY TRIGGER PEAK OF INFLATED EXPECTATIONS VISIBILITY MATURITY
40. Also, your favorite technology didn’t really die
41. WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN? PAIN CURRENT TOOLS ARE FAILING ME OH HEY SOMETHING NEW
42. This realization can happen instantly.
44. How it works History of Rails How to apply it The Hype Cycle
45. A Movement in 5 Medium Thinkpieces
46. TECHNOLOGY TRIGGER Technology Trigger
47. Peak of Inflated Expectations PEAK OF INFLATED EXPECTATIONS
48. Trough of Disillusionment TROUGH OF DISILLUSIONMENT
49. Slope of Enlightenment SLOPE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
50. Plateau of Productivity PLATEAU OF PRODUCTIVITY
51. No one upvotes the plateau of productivity.
52. “Hype” is not an insult, it’s an inevitability PLATEAU OF PRODUCTIVITY SLOPE OF ENLIGHTENMENT TROUGH OF DISILLUSIONMENT TECHNOLOGY TRIGGER PEAK OF INFLATED EXPECTATIONS VISIBILITY MATURITY
54. The “Whoops!” heard ‘round the world
55. TECHNOLOGY TRIGGER Technology Trigger
57. Peak of Inflated Expectations PEAK OF INFLATED EXPECTATIONS
62. Promise: This will make you the 10x developer you always hoped you were
63. You are literally a Jedi Rockstar
64. (We’ll talk about the real promise at the end)
65. ****
66. You’re on a rocket ride to the moooooooon!
67. Except then…
68. Trough of Disillusionment TROUGH OF DISILLUSIONMENT
72. Slope of Enlightenment SLOPE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
77. Plateau of Productivity PLATEAU OF PRODUCTIVITY
79. MySQL isn’t cool. You know what’s cool?
81. 3 TYPES: Pioneers Settlers Town Planners http://blog.gardeviance.org/2012/06/pioneers-settlers-and-town-planners.html
82. PIONEERS http://blog.gardeviance.org/2012/06/pioneers-settlers-and-town-planners.html
83. SETTLERS http://blog.gardeviance.org/2012/06/pioneers-settlers-and-town-planners.html
84. TOWN PLANNERS http://blog.gardeviance.org/2012/06/pioneers-settlers-and-town-planners.html
86. PIONEER SETTLER
87. Pre-0.14β: Pioneers Arrive
88. lighthttpd/FastCGI Built-in SOAP “Email me your gem list” Pre-0.14β: Pioneers Arrive
89. Shopify Engine Yard Odeo Pre-0.14β: Pioneers Arrive
90. Shopify Engine Yard Odeo Twitter Pre-0.14β: Pioneers Arrive
92. 1.0-2.3: Settlers Move In
93. acts_as_everything Restful routes Bundler Passenger 1.0-2.3: Settlers Move In
94. Thank you, Ryan Bates
95. Heroku Zendesk New Relic GitHub 1.0-2.3: Settlers Move In
97. 3.0-5: Town Planners Take Over
98. Merb merge & Arel SOA Rails as API 3.0-5: Town Planners Take Over
99. Fortune 500 companies Basically all of Y Combinator Most hacker schools 3.0-5: Town Planners Take Over
100. QUIZ TIME
101. Which irritates you most? 1. Being required to use outdated tools 2. Team members that try to rewrite your codebase in the latest “hipster stack” 3. Anything that gets in the way of shipping
102. Which do you enjoy most? 1. Accepting a PR for an OSS library 2. Applying a technology in a way that makes the company money 3. Solving a tricky performance issue
103. Where do you feel most helpful? 1. Showing someone that there’s a new, better way of doing things 2. Improving someone’s documentation 3. Automating a tedious deploy process
104. EACH ROLE IS VALUABLE Pioneers: Vision/Experiments Settlers: Strategy/Synthesis Town Planners: Tactics/Execution
105. PIONEERS OR “HIPSTERS”?
106. SETTLERS OR EXPLOITERS?
107. TOWN PLANNERS OR “ARCHITECTURE ASTRONAUTS”?
108. Wrong, but hilarious
109. Whichever you are, don’t beat up on others (or yourself) for not being the other two
110. Yeah, but how do I apply any of this stuff?
111. There are ways to win and lose at the hype cycle
112. HOW TO LOSE: 1. Dismiss new stuff, become commoditized 2. Get caught up in the cycle & burn out 3. Bet and crash with tech that doesn’t clear the trough
113. THE TECH TREADMILL BUT YOU CAN HACK
114. How to win depends on your preferences
115. Remember me? PLATEAU OF PRODUCTIVITY SLOPE OF ENLIGHTENMENT TROUGH OF DISILLUSIONMENT TECHNOLOGY TRIGGER PEAK OF INFLATED EXPECTATIONS VISIBILITY MATURITY
116. 2 QUESTIONS: What stage is it in? Should I concern myself?
117. TECHNOLOGY TRIGGER Technology Trigger PIONEERS: Probably. SETTLERS: Maybe… PLANNERS: No.
118. Peak of Inflated Expectations PEAK OF INFLATED EXPECTATIONS PIONEERS: Yes! SETTLERS: Maybe… PLANNERS: No.
119. CAN SURF THIS WAVE PIONEERS
120. Trough of Disillusionment TROUGH OF DISILLUSIONMENT PIONEERS: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ SETTLERS: Probably. PLANNERS: Maybe…
121. Slope of Enlightenment SLOPE OF ENLIGHTENMENT PIONEERS: Nope SETTLERS: Yes! PLANNERS: Probably.
122. Plateau of Productivity PLATEAU OF PRODUCTIVITY PIONEERS: No. SETTLERS: Maybe… PLANNERS: Yes!
123. THE COMFORT
124. If I don’t switch to Elixir and Phoenix, am I going to be left behind?
125. If I still use the Asset Pipeline instead of Webpack, am I headed for unemployment?
127. If I haven’t built a side project in Elm, am I intellectually lazy?
128. Your favorite technology isn’t dead.
130. No one gets to make you feel ashamed of liking the stuff you like.
131. IT’S OKAY TO NOT LIKE THINGS
132. PLEASE DON’T YUCK SOMEONE ELSE’S YUM. https://medium.com/@lizzerdrix/being-comfortable-enough-to-talk-15a6eb105ab9
133. But Brandon! If Ruby isn’t dead, why do you run a JavaScript consultancy?
134. Doesn’t that make you a humongous hypocrite?
135. But yeah, I’m a hypocrite
136. THE CAUTION
137. There comes a time for you to leave the plateau.
138. WHEN TO PIVOT
139. Day job (productivity) Side project (curiosity)
140. Make longer term bets, less often
141. Avoid tech that targets the peak
142. Align with tech that targets the plateau
143. The emotional roller coaster of your first production app in a new tech PLATEAU OF CONTINUOUS DELIVERY SLOPE OF MASTERY TROUGH OF “IT SHOULDN’T BE THIS TOUGH” “EMBER NEW” TRIGGER PEAK OF TUTORIAL- DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT ENTHUSIASM PROJECT DURATION
144. So you bet on a tool and got to “Hello World”
145. That post-tutorial high tho
146. Re-entering Earth’s gravity
147. The problem isn’t “the peak”, it’s “inflated expectations”.
148. 3-week PoC 6-month slog Estimation is hard impossible
149. TRUE 10x ENGINEERING
150. The problem: Your boss thinks “Proof of Concept” means “Production”
151. Yeah… If you could just put that into production by Saturday, that’d be great
152. The emotional roller coaster of your first production app in a new tech PLATEAU OF CONTINUOUS DELIVERY SLOPE OF MASTERY TROUGH OF “IT SHOULDN’T BE THIS TOUGH” “EMBER NEW” TRIGGER PEAK OF TUTORIAL- DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT ENTHUSIASM PROJECT DURATION
153. Why wade through the trough of disillusionment?
154. While your boss wasn’t looking, everything changed
155. While we swam the avalanche, everything changed
156. Client-driven UX is a thing
157. At 2.x, Ember is approaching the plateau of productivity
158. How did Rails & Ember “cross the chasm”?
159. Because while some churn in this cycle… CIRCLE OF ETERNAL HOPE
161. PLATEAU OF PRODUCTIVITY …things like Rails and Ember have always targeted this
162. I used to think the promise was to make me a 10x developer
163. “Look at all the things I’m not doing!”
164. The real promise is about helping you reach the plateau
165. On the plateau, there is time to focus
166. Focus on things that add value
167. (BUSINESS VALUE)
168. On the plateau, there is time to think
169. Maybe about how your boss is an idiot
170. And since you focus on business value,
171. You can afford to fire your boss.
172. …and then you do ****
173. And you turn out OK.
174. But that’s another talk.
176. Thanks. @tehviking http://frontside.io
177. IMAGE CREDITS Ruby on Rails book collage by Antonio Cangiano http://programmingzen.com/2007/01/05/collage-of-ruby- and-rails-books/ Ox wagon by University of Pretoria Library http://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/8033 Last Spike at Craigellachie by Wikimedia Commons https://www.wikimedia.org/ Old map of Austin by Wikimedia Commons https://www.wikimedia.org/ Meditate by Nadir Hashmi https://www.flickr.com/photos/nadircruise/ Sandwich by Adam Sherer https://www.flickr.com/photos/arsherer/ The Weight of Thought by Evan Leeson https://www.flickr.com/photos/ecstaticist/ The New Fred Meyer on Interstate on Lombard by Lyza https://www.flickr.com/photos/lyza/49545547 DHH during Dave Thomas' Talk by Jesper Rønn-Jensen https://www.flickr.com/photos/jesper/252308266/ Main Street Replica by Pioneer Trails Regional Museum http://www.ptrm.org/programs/?program_id=21 Hipster by Luca Rossato https://www.flickr.com/photos/funky64/16637883503/ Capitalist Pig by Brandon https://www.flickr.com/photos/darthdowney/3271642232