[cmenge]

I can see why it feels this way, but often times it seems to me the opposite is true, like a phase transition: it remains a bunch of commits until at some point it 'suddenly' becomes a product, usable by the designated users, solving a problem, possibly generating revenue. Like water that cools and cools and eventually turns to ice, even though that last quarter degree didn't change the temperature a lot.

[hyperpallium]

Extreme programming's "tracer bullet" is sort of a way around this, by implementing a minimal subset of functionality all the way though, so it "works".

The diminishing routines then come when expanding each stage. But at least you have the encouragement of being in post-phase-transition. This is like a MVP or Mark Cerny's "Method", but for motivation, not evaluation.

also, straw that broke the camel's back

[iainmerrick]

That’s an interesting analogy! To take it a bit further, there’s no change in temperature for the final stretch (meaning no apparent progress) until you overcome the latent heat of the liquid.

[JamesBarney]

I think you're getting at something very important about the article.

> The first couple hundred lines of code of your project will have a much larger impact than the last few thousand lines of code ever will.

This is true of impact on functionality, not necessarily impact on the world.

If I write my own todo app it might be useful to one person, but as I continue to work on it, eventually 2 people will find it useful. Then 3. I could be up to 3x less productive per hour and still have the same impact per hour due the increased number of users.

Impact on the world is (functionality) * (# of users). If you're working on a useful project the number of users will more than make up for the diminishing functionality returns per hour.

[MaxBarraclough]

To rephrase this then: your additional work may improve your product only a little, but it may be enough that it can now compete in the market. If it's a winner-takes-all market, a slight improvement in quality may be especially consequential.

edit I think this might model the success of Slack. Which chat program should we use? There are lots of free ones and they're all about the same, but Slack has slightly better polish than the rest and is easy to set up. Let's use that. If that conversation happens in tens of thousands of organisations, you take over the world.