---
title: "On Confidence and Real-Time Strategy Games"
date: 2011-06-30T00:00:00+00:00
draft: false
needs_review: true
canonical_url: https://www.viget.com/articles/on-confidence-and-real-time-strategy-games/
---

I want to talk about confidence and how it applies to being a successful
developer. But before I do that, I want to talk about
*[Z](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(video_game))*, a real-time
strategy game from the mid-'90s.

[![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/68/Z_The_Bitmap_Brothers.PNG/256px-Z_The_Bitmap_Brothers.PNG)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Z_The_Bitmap_Brothers.PNG)

In other popular RTSes of the time, like *Warcraft* and *Command and
Conquer*, you collected `/(gold|Tiberium|Vespene gas)/` and used it to
build units with which to smite your enemies. Z was different: no
resources, only territories that were held by either you or your
opponent. The more territories you held, the more factories you had
*and* the faster each of your factories was able to manufacture units.

If you spent a lot of time playing a Blizzard RTS (and of course you
did), your instinct is to spend the first portion of a match fortifying
your base and amassing an army, after which you head out in search of
your enemy. Try this strategy in Z, though, and by the time you put
together a respectable force, your opponent has three times as many
units and the game is all but decided. Instead, the winning strategy is
to expand early and often, defending your territories as best you can
before pushing forward.

## So What

As developers, our confidence comes from the code we've written and the
successes we've had. When we find ourselves in unfamiliar territory
(such as a new technology or problem domain), our instinct is to act
like a Starcraft player --- keep a low profile, build two (ALWAYS TWO)
barracks, and code away until we have something we're confident in. This
will get you pretty far against the Zerg swarm, but it's a losing
strategy in the realm of software development: the rest of the team
isn't waiting around for you to find your comfort zone. They're making
decisions in your absence, and they very likely aren't the same
decisions you'd make. Your lack of confidence leads to poor
implementation which leads to less confidence, from both your team and
yourself.

Instead, I contend that real-world development is closer to Z than it is
to Starcraft: show confidence early (despite lacking total understanding
of the problem) and your teammates and clients will be inclined to trust
your technical leadership, leading to better technical decisions and a
better product, giving you more confidence and your team all the more
reason to follow your advice. Just as territories lead to units lead to
more territories, confidence leads to good code leads to more
confidence.

**In short:** *display* confidence at the beginning of a project so that
you can *have* confidence when it really counts.

Do you agree? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Best comment gets [my
personal copy of Z](http://www.flickr.com/photos/deisinger/5888230612)
from 1996. You're on your own for the Windows 95 box.
