[erlang-questions] Question about erlang history at Ericsson

[Robert Raschke]

On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 9:34 PM, Joe Armstrong <erlang@REDACTED> wrote:
[... snip ...]
> I think we systematically under-rate the significance of chance and
> chaos.  Most significant change
> takes place in very short time periods of chaos. Erlang had many
> periods when nothing happened for years
> then rapid changes could take place in very short time periods, always
> when a crisis occurred
> (ie Erlang was banned, a big project failed etc).
>
> Moral - forget about careful planning and move quickly when a crisis
> occurs - trust your gut feelings.

Joe, have you been reading Virginia Satir and Jerry Weinberg? Funnily
enough, the presentation is usually the other way round, if you want
change (or cope with it), then you'll need to be able to cope with the
neccessary bit of chaos to see you through.

The hardest thing to get right, though, is the ability to express (or
take advantage of) your gut feelings. Tricky one that.

Robby