The Google Powered Developer

A.K.A. You can't keep up with technology, so don't even try.

The paradigm for coding is changing. There used to be a pretty small number of technologies that a given app would use, and if some of those technologies were new to me, I could spend a couple days and spin up on them. Today, we're using many little pieces of very big things. Be it a grid with hundreds of members, or SQL Server with hundreds of features. Today, I'm seeing developers use a different paradigm. They Google, code, Google, code. A developer knows they need a grid. They drop one on a form. How do you get data into it? Google. How do you make alternating lines a different color? Google. The application needs logging. Google says that you can choose the Logging Application Block, or log4net. Google says that log4net is easier. Google shows how to get log4net up and running. The developer needs to encrypt the local database. Google. What's a good way to do dirty form handling? Google.

There's just no way to keep up. The number of developer related technologies, even in the Microsoft-cosm, is increasing at an exponential rate. How much time do you have to learn, in advance, about Reporting Service, Windows Workflow Foundation, WinFX, Indigo, Atlas, Team System, System.Transaction, Lambda functions, Ruby, Visual Studio Tools for Office, Hubards Peak, what's the fastest chart control, DirectX, LINQ, CLR stored procedures, Avalon, Expression studio, MBS, Speech Server, My, Generics, iterators, BackgroundWorker, table layout panel, ClickOnce, BizTalk, Sharepoint, BI, AI, single instance applications, etc., etc. Looking at this list, you probably think exactly what I think, which is, "I don't have to know everything about each of those right now. If I need one of those, I know I can figure it out pretty quickly."

In any area where the knowledge space has exploded, search has become the solution. I used to organize my e-mail. I don't any more. I know with MSN Desktop search, I can just find anything that's ever gone through my Outlook. I don't use my Start menu any more. Start | All Programs | Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 | Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003, is too slow. Typing "Visual Stu" in the MSN Desktop search bar is fast.

Since there's no way to keep up with everything new, don't even try, and don't feel bad about it. The new paradigm is to know that for the vast majority of development tasks, a solution probably exists. You just have to find it, figure it out, and use it. If you take two developers with equal coding ability, the one who's a Google Use'n Machine will be far more productive that the developer who isn't. You want the Google Powered Developer in your shop.

Do the people building technology know about the Google Powered Developer? Are they optimizing for the GPD?

Here's a message for those people inventing the new technology. Think Search. Many of your users will not know that your product/feature exists, before they click "Search". When they find your stuff, it better be quickly apparent exactly what your stuff does, and how it should be used to solve their problem. Many users are only going to kick the your tires for a few minutes before they decide to make your stuff part of their solution, or return to The Text Box for more answers. Time to Grok is key. I know you love those who are enamored with your stuff, who research it in depth, and who blog all about it, but for the other 99.999% of your users, they're doing JIT learning.

How JIT-able is your feature? How JIT-able is your product?