First Things First
summary
Argues that tech change is slower than panic claims and gives concrete timelines: ~100–150 years from telephone to practical mobile, AI hype and winters across decades, XP and Agile still not universal after 18–20 years, Brooks’ 44‑year insight that adding people slows projects. Shows enterprise reality — legacy mainframes, ESBs and messy integrations — undermining greenfield assumptions; cites microservices, cloud and agile as tools that help but don’t erase complexity. Recommends do no harm, apply factfulness to timelines and respect Amara's law.
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chapters (14)
- 0:00Intro
- 2:217 Years in software
- 3:45Digital transformation
- 7:49Why transformation is hard
- 10:03Conventional Wisdom
- 16:49What is the pace of change of tech?
- 23:00What is the pace of change of ways of work?
- 25:47New tech takes time to mainstream
- 30:01Stay Calm!
- 34:05The consequence
- 35:03The First Thing
- 36:30The Second Thing
- 38:01The Third Thing
- 39:20Amara's Law
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