Software Sculpting
Frameworks are equal parts great and not the point
Frameworks are just tools. And tools are only valuable if you know when to use them and how to use them well.
If you give the world’s most expensive set of sculpting chisels to someone who has never sculpted, you don’t get your hopes up.
However, give a master sculptor a rusty hammer and a Walmart screwdriver and you’ll almost certainly be impressed.
Building products is like sculpting except you’re working in more than 3 dimensions. Beyond just making the thing, you need to work well with others, balance the now and the future, tell great stories about the work, manage leadership’s expectations, and so on.
Frameworks can help.
But they are the tools to be employed, not the craft itself.
Just as each stone has a different density and irregular striations and unique colorations, so too does a product have myriad facets of complexity. The skilled artist will employ the right tool at the right time in the right area to coax out the finished piece.
Consider how this applies to building software—or really any type of product. We have no shortage of tools in our trade. The trick is to avoid becoming too tightly wrapped around them and remember that all these frameworks and models and exercises and canvases that we apply are the means, not the end.