Does Uber have vision

Notice a lot of deleted posts in this thread? If people can't remember that the people they're talking to are humans and should be addressed respectfully, even when you disagree, there are going to repercussions on who is still welcome to post on the forums.

The passion is appreciated. The antagonism is not.

Hey garat, which source of information / book would you advice me to read about agile/scrum (are they both the same ?). I'm not a dev, but i feel like i'm daily bullshited by people stating they're working in agile mode and i'm pretty sure i do not get the exact information about what agile should be.
I'm especially concerned by this : When it comes to PA development, i can understand that at some point and before final release agile method may lead you to redo from scratch something which has not been well designed and does not match the new requirements you have for a specific feature or goal. I'm taking the example of rendering code which is currently being reworked. And i can understand this also concerns other features. But does it means that when PA reaches final release, then you may be likely to redo again something from scratch if further developement (addon, dlc) requires it ? Or do you intend, by reaching final release to ensure that most of PA fundation code will not be changed anymore (unless you consider to work on PA 2). Assuming PA is an on going developement even after release, will you still be likely to redo a major part of PA fundation if you consider it has to be redone ? I understand that by moving this way you are more agile. But at which point do you consider this method as introducing too much cost ? thanks

yeh, couldn't work out if troll post, or just ignorant.

I can understand RAD but i have seen it too many times used and abused to meet "time to market" requirements and this many times results in poor software quality. So how would one avoid this ?

They brough in a ks conceptrailer that showed of what they imagine this game to become ... thats enough vision to me

I hate to buy into this, but at the very least Garat is right about the "vision being a legacy better reflected on in the future looking back". Anyone know Walmart? It sucks right now. When it was new, that old codger Sam Walton didn't realize he would create the most widespread "general store" ever in existence. Just a store at the time he made it. He had vision, just no "scope of how big it would grow", to use his words. He just did something he thought was good, he didn't overplan it or underplan it, he knew what he wanted to do and got to unforeseen details when they came, and it turned out pretty big.

So, we don't know the legacy. Who knew Minecraft would be as big as it is, back when it was still a dirt block/stone block/sand block and no entities including character model?

It is all bout potential ...

Yea there are a couple of ways to define Vision. In terms of creating new stuff, Vision is usually binary: he "knew it all along" and built something awesome with intent and someone without it is just a somebody.

In corporate terms, vision is mostly just "where i want to end up" and not as exciting, but it's still useful to have.

I personally think the kickstarter video was definitely a great act of Vision and i think it's a good part of the reason it became so successful: people immediately understood it.

i do believe the "best" approach is one that's somewhere inbetween nailing everything down and figuring it out as you go along.

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For real... All we have gotten is that you don't like the entire idea that the game was built upon, which is massive scale. It is like I have said before, if you want a simpler, smaller game, there are TONS already out there.

I cannot post links, but type "scrum guide" into google, the first result should be the official guide from scrum.org.
Scrum is one of agile methodologies, but there are others (e.g. kanban, extreme programming)

If it has to be redone, it will be (that the definition of "has to", aka there is no other way). I don't know how large uber is, but there are always different opinions and different teams. Something might need to be redone from technical point of view, but it's ROI might not be sufficient from business POV (and not required from the business pov).

Also remember that agile approach means that you adjust. If at some point you realize you need to redo something - you redo it. If you realize your development process is imperfect and can be improved - you change it. So for questions about far future the proper answer is: "it depends, we'll see".

it was mentioned in a Uber Unplugged how many employees they have, somewhere around 30. I just don't recall which one it is.

Uber Unplugged - Uber's Official Podcast

I usually stay out of this kind of conversation but I've wanted to say something for a while now, and this seems like a decent opportunity to do it.

I want to say Thank You, to every single employee at Uber, all of whom take time out of their very busy day to respond thoughtfully and genuinely with open, clear, honest communication. This is such a rarity, I'm confident in saying I've never seen another development team, especially one as high-profile as Uber (if that's not laying it on a little too thick) be so engaged and open in regular, ongoing discussions about the product, development, thought processes going into the product, and receiving feedback in a way that shapes the product for the benefit of the overall outcome.

You guys have really done something right, in your communication.

That said, there seems to be some crazy tendency - especially with kickstarter (et. al) campaigns - for people on the internetticals who are given unprecedented access to developers to abuse that privilege, exhibiting what some might call the typical internet troll type of behavior, but what shocks me the most is the sense of entitlement. The attitude that people are somehow owed more than they are being given, when in fact, they are getting so much more than they even deserve.

I don't know how you guys remain calm, polite, professional and most of all, I have no idea how you manage to remain engaged with the community when so often the community for whom you are tirelessly working is so shamefully disrespectful to you in payment for your extra efforts to involve them at all phases of the project. But for your willingness to remain engaged with this community, and to do so in such a rich and positive way, I again have to say THANK YOU.

I've written one thing only in my life (code) that is in any way important to other people. I did it without knowing how to code anything, I rewrote it 4 times, and it still is the biggest ***-sandwich of code you could ever imagine because I didn't know anything at all about what I was doing. For one thing, I'd seriously "underthought" the process.

Realizing that, I switched to overthinking for a while, and got absolutely nowhere on my project for a month.

I guess my (only on-topic) point is: Uber has it right by not getting in the weeds with overthinking, and relying on experience and expertise to guide them through the intuitive moments that are allowed by a less rigid design methodology.

I know that you guys have learned a lot more than I ever will about coding. I know you're doing a great job as I can see that in the product I have in my hands, as well as the videos of what is to come. Keep up the good work, and again, thank you very much.

edit: typo

^ This x1000

So far the game is already freaking awesome.

It's gonna redefine a genre. If those guys are doing it wrong what I would tell them is "please keep going!".