the psychology of technology / zohar arad
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Zohar Arad. November 2016
The Psychology of Technology
Why we make the wrong decisions for the all right reasons
❖ Developer since 2004❖ Currently CTO & Lead Architect @ Quicklizard
Ltd.❖ Consulting on Big-Data, Architecture and tech
as a side-gig❖ New tech. freak - In particular Web frameworks
and DBs.
a little about me
Today we're going to talk about how people approach technology selection, and why
they make the choices they make.
Choosing tech. can be tricky to get “right” and is often a very emotional process.
ego, stress, responsibility and fear can get in the way of seeing things clearly.
If we know how to identify these emotions, we can stir clear of them
and choose the tech. that solves our problem best, rather than the one
that soothes our anxiety more quickly.
… and how to avoid them
The N archetypes of technology decision makers
The Over-Optimizer
❖ Characteristics - accepts or rejects technology based on semi-realistic performance metrics.
❖ Main worry - will it work on production with such and such load?
❖ Natural habitat - JVM (usually)❖ Wrong because - Performance is not the only
criteria for appropriate tech.
The Fanboy❖ Characteristics - accepts or rejects technology
based on popularity and newness (newer is better).
❖ Main worry - if no one is using it / it’s not modern, then it’s not cool, and by extension I’m not cool.
❖ Natural habitat - Github trends, Hacker News, macOS
❖ Wrong because - tech. should be evaluated based on usefulness not age, adoption rate or coolness.
The Trend Follower❖ Characteristics - accepts or rejects technology
based on what other people are using.❖ Main worry - doesn’t want to be the sucker who
made the wrong choice.❖ Natural habitat - StackOverflow & Github
trends.❖ Wrong because - popularity is not a
measurement of how suitable tech. is to solve a particular problem.
Additional Archetypes❖ The Risk Averter - accepts or rejects
technology based on how long it’s been used and by whom.
❖ The Bureaucrat - accepts or rejects technology based on organization protocols (mainly security / support).
❖ The Relic - accepts or rejects technology based on whether they know it or not.
Moving Forward
Introducing new tech involves taking risks and introducing change.
Each archetype employs their own mechanism to minimize risk and cope with change.
Moving Forward
Making the right choices is about
finding a compromise between
the advantages of a new piece of tech,
vs.
the risk it involves and the cost of change.
A better way of doing it❖ Select up to 3 options that fit technologically
(usually there’s no single “best” fit).❖ Look for risky money pits - maintainability, inter-
op., cost-of-ownership over time, learning curve etc.
❖ Make a compromise between fitness and riskiness.
❖ Prototype to test your theory and repeat above.❖ Rinse and repeat every couple of years.
Parting notes❖ Usually selecting tech. is not a life/death
decision. There’s a large grey area…❖ Think about current vs. future tech. debt - Quick
and dirty might be a good choice, as long as you have a clear plan of how to change things later.
❖ Try to avoid passing trends. Choosing popular tech. is good, as long as you choice it for the right reasons.
If we have time…
A short anecdote about fanboys…
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