[beyang]

Author of the post here. This really resonates with me. One of the best pieces of advice I've received in my life as a programmer, from my first manager actually, was "focus on getting an end-to-end system up and running first, no matter how janky, and then refine from there".

[gjadi]

It has different names. In Pragmatic Engineer (the book) it's called tracer bullet, others talk about walking skeleton and I remember a post not too long ago that gave it a different name but I can't find it.

And I agree, it's a very good advice and not always so easy to follow. You often need to cut corners and ignore stuff for later to connect the system ASAP. It's mostly through experience that you learn what can be ignored and what should not be ignored.

[kjsthree]

I call this the “thin thread” and agree that it’s best to get that in place fast and hacky. Then refine and bolster from there.