The Darwinism of Software and Human Behaviors

Moshe Weiss
Aug 26, 2017 · 2 min read

Dar·win·ism

ˈdärwəˌnizəm/ noun

The theory of the evolution of species by natural selection advanced by Charles Darwin.

Not only Species were evolved according to Darwin, our environment evolved as well. Every material or feeling is either a species or species-creation, which evolved over time.

Same are applications or devices which are human-creation.

The first release of an application tries to hit the target, its users needs, the 2nd release is adding more features after understanding better its users. The 5th release is a grown up — mature release, ready to rock.

Applications that are not evolving according to their users and their evolving needs will die and not survive in the sea of applications and solutions. Darwinism.

The way we use or feel to our applications evolves as well and changes over time. Imagine yourselves using Facebook in 2008 when there was no like button, weird ahh? much different than how we are consuming Facebook application in 2017. Facebook evolved a lot during the years from its 1st massive release on 2008. Read more about it here: https://www.pcmag.com/feature/320360/10-years-later-facebook-s-design-evolution.

Another example is the iPhone. It wasn’t until iPhone 4 (which was the 4th generation, after iPhone 1, 3rd and 3GS) where it became a hit and everybody wanted an iPhone.

“Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809 — 1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual’s ability to compete, survive, and reproduce”

Features or behaviors/concepts of an application/device are evolving and participating in the Darwinism theory.

Basically any application/device that doesn’t adapt to changes of its users needs or the environment quickly enough, will result in shrinking of its usage and finally to a death where no continuous of it can be maintained.

An example from my work in IBM on how we evolved together with our application, being agile and listening to our customer needs, having our priorities being dynamic, changed in every release due to what is hurting the users the most while their feelings and usage is evolving as well, shaping the releases, hence, the product itself.

To read a real life example from my work experience, read the rest of the post in my blog here.

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