Future proofing
It is always tempting when buying or designing things to plan for the future; to add features that make your design or purchase “future proof”.
Kevin Kelly recounts how he installed ethernet cables and phone sockets throughout his house with the view that it would be easier to do it now and would future proof it later. He highlights that he didn’t see wireless having such an impact and making most of that work redundant - and this is from an expert in predicting the future.
In our house the room I work in is at the front of the house but the physical broadband connection comes in at the back of the house. I considered in the past getting an ethernet cable installed however the concrete floor downstairs and the way the house runs made this virtually impossible without considerable effort and cost. I now have an excellent wireless mesh setup in the house and that idea is relegated to history.
The same can be seen sometimes in software. We engineer for a future that we never have to support. I am not saying it is a bad idea to design well or include a level of planning however we often design and develop features or performance that will never be hit. It is worth ensuring you don’t paint yourself into a corner however it is better to identify the actual need before making the assumption.
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