TITLE: Reaching for Too Much, in Life and Software Development
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: May 05, 2011  3:35 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
I just read this passage from <EM>The Rhythm of Life</EM>,
by Matthew Kelly:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
You never can get enough of what you don't really need.

Fulfillment comes not from having more and more of
everything forever into oblivion.  Fulfillment comes
from having what you need.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

Kelly is talking about how we live our lives.  However,
I could not help but think of
<A HREF="http://www.extremeprogramming.org/rules/early.html">
   You Aren't Gonna Need It</A>
and agile software development.

From there, Kelly takes a moral turn, but even then
I hear the agile voice within:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
The whole world is chasing illegitimate wants with
reckless abandon.  We use all of our time, effort,
and energy in the pursuit of our illegitimate wants,
hypnotized by the lie that our illegitimate wants are
the key to our happiness.

At the same time, the gentle voice within us is
constantly calling out to us, trying to encourage us
not to ignore the wisdom we already possess.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

There is a lot to be said for learning to be content
with implementing the features we are working on right
now, not features we think are coming in the future.
Perhaps if we can learn to be content in life we can
also learn to be content in code.
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