Building at the Breaking Point
Every once and a while we get to alter the way we build things. We are presented with the opportunity to shift perspective and alter the way we view progress, especially during the creation process. Fact is, we love to make stuff, but even more than that, we love getting better at making stuff. Right now we are experiencing one of those opportunities and a lot of us are gravitating towards seizing it.
It involves the removal of a particular hesitation, the removal of a “do not cross” line. Before now, we were confined by the limitations of the gain vs. lost mentality. Constantly afraid to approach the breaking point, we would spend almost any amount of resources to ensure it’s distant proximity. If we ever did approach it, that meant something was wrong and we needed to perform a costly reevaluation to push it further away.
Things now are a bit different (at least for those of us that build for the web). The breaking point, once thought of with connotations of fear and hesitation, is now a much more pleasing sight, if not a welcome one. It means you’re getting closer. Stumbling or intentionally tripping on it means that you’re trying something new, something better and that mentality has extended far beyond just the coding part of building things for the web.
We have the opportunity to quite literally try everything until it breaks… then try it differently. This process can be repeated almost indefinitely because the cost of doing so is so minimal. We get to stretch limits and attempt things that we’ve never seen because that’s the process. Build until it breaks, then keep building.
Figuring out why it broke usually bears unexpected fruit because it’s another opportunity to express a certain creativity that will set the product apart in the future. Each and every occurrence of dealing with something broken allows for a discovery phase that no planning process can offer.
If it ain’t broke, keep building ‘till it is. Have fun along the way and you’re bound to find something unexpected, maybe even brilliant.
