Careful with that hammer

There’s a saying that goes “If all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail.” I see a lot of people swinging their hammers at things – sometimes they swing at nails, and sometimes they swing at things that look like nails. Other times, they seem to swing at apples or street signs. Luckily, when they swing at fruit or signs they usually miss.

I work with someone who has a hammer. It’s a big shiny hammer, and it’s a good hammer. It’s the best hammer I know of to pound many types of nails. Unfortunately, they’re falling into the trap of swinging their hammer at everything – and it’s leading projects and people in the wrong direction. When you have a big shiny hammer, this is easy to do. Hammer wielders need to be able to take a step back and look at the problem they are trying to solve and determine if it needs a hammer…or a wrench…or an apple peeler.

I think it’s good to have a hammer – just make sure you use it responsibly.

Comments

• Anonymous
  July 30, 2009
  Good post. Software testing is all about finding truth (in a softwre system) and when people only have a hammer in their skill set, they can miss the truth. Not in an evil way, but kind of as a consequence of the weakness of human nature.