61 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
61 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "On Confidence and Real-Time Strategy Games"
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date: 2011-06-30T00:00:00+00:00
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draft: false
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canonical_url: https://www.viget.com/articles/on-confidence-and-real-time-strategy-games/
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---
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I want to talk about confidence and how it applies to being a successful
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developer. But before I do that, I want to talk about
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*[Z](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(video_game))*, a real-time
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strategy game from the mid-'90s.
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{{<dither 256px-Z_The_Bitmap_Brothers.PNG "" "inline">}}Battle-hardened robot cowboy Cmdr. Zod sprays bullets amid explosions on the cover of “Z” by The Bitmap Brothers.{{</dither>}}
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In other popular RTSes of the time, like *Warcraft* and *Command and
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Conquer*, you collected `/(gold|Tiberium|Vespene gas)/` and used it to
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build units with which to smite your enemies. Z was different: no
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resources, only territories that were held by either you or your
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opponent. The more territories you held, the more factories you had
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*and* the faster each of your factories was able to manufacture units.
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If you spent a lot of time playing a Blizzard RTS (and of course you
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did), your instinct is to spend the first portion of a match fortifying
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your base and amassing an army, after which you head out in search of
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your enemy. Try this strategy in Z, though, and by the time you put
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together a respectable force, your opponent has three times as many
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units and the game is all but decided. Instead, the winning strategy is
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to expand early and often, defending your territories as best you can
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before pushing forward.
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## So What
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As developers, our confidence comes from the code we've written and the
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successes we've had. When we find ourselves in unfamiliar territory
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(such as a new technology or problem domain), our instinct is to act
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like a Starcraft player --- keep a low profile, build two (ALWAYS TWO)
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barracks, and code away until we have something we're confident in. This
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will get you pretty far against the Zerg swarm, but it's a losing
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strategy in the realm of software development: the rest of the team
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isn't waiting around for you to find your comfort zone. They're making
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decisions in your absence, and they very likely aren't the same
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decisions you'd make. Your lack of confidence leads to poor
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implementation which leads to less confidence, from both your team and
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yourself.
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Instead, I contend that real-world development is closer to Z than it is
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to Starcraft: show confidence early (despite lacking total understanding
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of the problem) and your teammates and clients will be inclined to trust
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your technical leadership, leading to better technical decisions and a
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better product, giving you more confidence and your team all the more
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reason to follow your advice. Just as territories lead to units lead to
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more territories, confidence leads to good code leads to more
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confidence.
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**In short:** *display* confidence at the beginning of a project so that
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you can *have* confidence when it really counts.
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Do you agree? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Best comment gets [my
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personal copy of Z](http://www.flickr.com/photos/deisinger/5888230612)
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from 1996. You're on your own for the Windows 95 box.
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