Kent Beck and the Matrix

You know that scene in the Matrix where what’s-her-face says to what’s-his-face that this is no one has ever done this before, and he says, “That’s why it’s going to work.”

I like to joke about applying this scene as often as possible on the job, but it turns out, as usual, I’m late to the party:

If an idea is really stupid, it’s definitely worth trying. If an idea is good, and it turns out to be true, somebody else will have done it. If an idea is stupid, you have a chance that nobody else is dumb enough to try it. Then if it happens to work, you really have something. ‘Oh, how do you think of these great ideas?’ It’s cuz they’re not great ideas when I think of them.

Extreme Programming 20 Years Later by Kent Beck (YouTube)