Here at Automattic, we’ve been running an internal experiment called Radical Speed Month, a one-month initiative where two-person teams are given broad autonomy to build and ship projects quickly with minimal process overhead.
In some ways, it reminded me of when someone takes a long vacation. Whenever that happens, everything resets. You need to rebalance responsibilities, workflows, and dependencies that naturally formed around that person for however long they were away.
This felt similar.
It also sparked a lot of different ideas and fantastic projects. Some people were truly energized by this work. And honestly, so was I. I was surprised by the amount of enthusiasm and passion this triggered.
It served as a reminder that this kind of energy is what drives engagement, curiosity, and creativity, and we should strive to keep it alive and nurture it.
It was also a reminder that we should periodically challenge our assumptions and re-evaluate the systems we’ve built around ourselves.
As a developer, I’ve always thought that every piece of code added to an application has a butterfly effect. Someone will need to maintain that code for as long as it exists.
In fact, one thing I always say is that the best code is the code you don’t need to write.
Sometimes we add code for things we don’t actually need, and that becomes maintenance and operational overhead we carry for years.
Adding code is easy. Removing code is much harder.
Removing features can be even harder because users naturally build workflows and habits around them, then over time, we all tend to accumulate complexity.
For a long time, I thought code was the main surface where complexity gets introduced. But I’m constantly reminded me that complexity exists everywhere.
Every company has countless touch points where things can become heavier, slower, and more layered than they need to be. And many of those things can become better and leaner.
That’s why this question is so powerful: If you were starting today, what would you do differently?
Which of the structures you created are complicit in your results?
If you temporarily ignored existing boundaries and assumptions, the org charts and the structure, what would you build? Where would you go?
I don’t know what the future will hold. But I think we’ll need as many good ideas, perspectives, and thoughtful opinions as possible to navigate what comes next.
Some additional food for thought, related to this
- Don’t forget about the Chesterton’s fence
- Remember the Brook’s Law and Metcalfe’s Law
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