On Solutions
Published on July 7, 2010 (ā» February 5, 2024), filed under Web Development and Everything Else (RSS feed for allĀ categories).
This and many other posts are also available as a pretty, well-behaved ebook: On Web Development.
Solutions require problems. If you donāt have a problem, you donāt need a solution.
This is exactly why you should, whenever someone proposes a solutionāwhich includes design and technical changesāask what problem that solution solves, and to be specific about it.
If you donāt get an answer, you probably donāt have a problem and donāt need a solution.
If you get an answer, and letās assume that answer reveals a real problem, you find yourself in need of a solution. That, however, does not necessarily mean the proposed solution is the solutionāit may just be a solution.
You benefit from keeping this in mind, and from being smart about it. Have an idea of both the cost of the problem and the cost of the solution, and an understanding of when a high cost of solution still means itās worth implementing it.
If you canāt tell when youāre dealing with a solution that lacks a problem, a solution that attempts to solve an ill-defined problem, or a solution that is far more expensive than the problem, then forget about the solution. It isnāt one.
CSS Media Queries constitute such a case after A List Apart made everyone remember them. Among the highlights, a fellow redesigning his site using media queries, overlooking, over all the hype, that 95% of what he did was possible a long time ago using floats and maybe a pinch of min-width
. Ask yourself: What am I trying to solve, and is the solution I have in mind actually appropriate?
About Me
Iām Jens, and Iām an engineering lead and author. Iāve worked as a technical lead for companies like Google and as an engineering manager for companies like Miro, Iām close to W3C and WHATWG, and I write and review books for OāReilly and FrontendĀ Dogma.
With my current move to Spain, Iām open to a new remote frontend leadership position. Feel free to review and refer my CV or LinkedInĀ profile.
I love trying things, not only in web development, but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my views andĀ experiences.
Comments (Closed)
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On July 7, 2010, 17:06 CEST, tobs said:
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On July 12, 2010, 17:39 CEST, Randy said:
I believe every manager I ever worked for wanted to fix non-existent problems with expensive solutions so they could appear to be contributing. This is a policy more companies should enact. Before there can be a solution, there must be a problem.
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On July 31, 2010, 11:39 CEST, Nicolas Chevallier said:
Itās better to have a solution but no problem, or a problem but no solution ? š
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On August 5, 2010, 17:42 CEST, Rob Ahern said:
my manager also likes to fix āproblemsā with expensive solutions. lol
maybe its a managery thing to doā¦. -
On August 26, 2010, 22:42 CEST, tim said:
must be referring to code, because i canāt think of ever having had a design solution before having a problemā¦
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On September 27, 2010, 3:41 CEST, Tim Wong said:
Was reading through my past blogs and found a correlation.
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