Gonzo Software Development

The ideas here are half-baked, half-formed and largely not thought out at all.

As you shall see, that’s mostly the point.

I think this is a start of a manifesto.

It’s a vibe I have, a feeling about the way to do things, based on my experience over the last 10 years and the last 18 months in particular – an independent developer, working as a lone-wolf and an occasional team player and exposed to maybe a dozen organisations in various states of decay, chaos and excellence, and occasionally all of these together.

From Wikipedia on Gonzo Journalism:

Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism which is written subjectively, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first person narrative. The style tends to blend factual and fictional elements to emphasize an underlying message and engage the reader …

Gonzo journalism tends to favor style over accuracy and often uses personal experiences and emotions to provide context for the topic or event being covered. It disregards the ‘polished’ edited product favored by newspaper media and strives for the gritty factor …

In other contexts, gonzo has come to mean “with reckless abandon,” or, more broadly, “extreme”.

Gonzo Software Development is agile development performed with reckless abandon. It’s an approach that says good enough is good enough, and riffs fast and furious to discover the “good enough”.

Gonzo Software is subjective, everyone has the tools to create and connect.

Gonzo Software Development is not afraid of code.

Or humans.

Gonzo wants the humans to not be afraid of the code

Gonzo doesn’t pretend the human can be taken out of the process.

Gonzo wants to help the human be smarter, faster.

Gonzo, to para-phrase, is many small pieces, loosely and intelligently connected.

Gonzo Software Development is a work in progress.

Watch this space.