The Mythical Man-Month

Ah yes, the mythical man-month. This is the belief that a project can be completed twice as fast by assigning twice as many staff to it. Generally speaking this is wrong, wrong, wrong. Beyond a certain point adding staff decreases productivity because of the spiraling effort required to communicate and coordinate.

This comes to mind today because I see a technology blogger has called Bill Gates out with a $10,000 bet over his recent statement that the next version of Windows, now called Vista but once know as Longhorn, has an 80% chance of shipping by January 2007. Vista was originally supposed to ship in late 2002 and a large number of core features have been dropped...

In my own life Sheryl and I enjoyed a $35 Summerlicious dinner at Thuet on Wednesday. All I can say is wow! Tonight we're going to Era Ora, which is just around the corner from Sheryl's place. I also ran across this remarkable excerpt in the Globe & Mail's morning obituaries:

July 14, 1911
An estimated 300 people died when a huge forest fire swept through the Porcupine area near Timmins, Ont. The blaze was fanned by high winds until it became a fast-moving 40-kilometre front. In places men in mining camps who heard it approaching escaped only by running as fast as their strength allowed for a lake or river. Some who made it to safety arrived with clothes burned off their backs. Hundreds of people in settlements who also went to the lakes were drowned, pushed into deep waters by the crush of late arrivals. A young bank clerk who had conscientiously emptied the vaults before running to the lake guarded the cash throughout the night with a loaded revolver, alone in an open canoe. The fire left more than 3,000 people homeless and destroyed 2,200 square kilometres of forest, taking with it the mining communities of South Porcupine, Cochrane and Goldlands.

The Toronto International Film Festival is also approaching. I spent Wednesday and Thursday evenings helping at the recruiting sessions down at Roy Thompson Hall. Why not join us? Check out the volunteering opportunities here.

Listening to: So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry) by R.E.M. from Reckoning.