{"id":20158,"date":"2021-06-10T13:51:54","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T11:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.trifork.com\/?p=20158"},"modified":"2021-06-10T13:51:54","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T11:51:54","slug":"in-my-previous-project-and-other-cognitive-biases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trifork.nl\/blog\/in-my-previous-project-and-other-cognitive-biases\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIn My Previous Project\u2026\u201d and Other Cognitive Biases"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><br \/><em>This article is part of one of Wilco Koorn\u2019s \u201c42 Years of Programming&#8221; series of short stories. Wilco Koorn is a senior developer at Trifork retiring after a long career in the software industry. During this series, he discusses 42 lessons and revelations he\u2019s had throughout his career as a programmer. This series alludes to \u201cThe Hitchhiker&#8217;s Guide to the Galaxy\u201d \u2013\u2013 a comic science fiction series by Douglas Adams \u2013\u2013 whose first novel revealed the number 42 to be the \u201cAnswer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything\u201d.<\/em><br \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the biggest lessons I\u2019ve learned in recent years is the existence of cognitive biases and how they influence decisions made in software architecture. More importantly, how they lead to suboptimal decisions.<br \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s an example I\u2019m sure you\u2019re aware of: when a new team is formed \u2013\u2013 or when the team gets a new member \u2013\u2013 you experience the \u201cIn my previous project&#8230;\u201d debate. Arguments consist of why technology X is to be preferred over technology Y based on people\u2019s previous experiences with these technologies. Many forms of these debates exist, with people suggesting the use of Mercurial over, for example, Git, or Bamboo over Jenkins. The list of preferences is endless \u2013\u2013 especially when you take the various versions of each technology into account.<br \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a good reason for these discussions: people truly believe that their opinion is better. Few people, however, realise that these choices are influenced by cognitive biases. Their positive or negative experiences with these technologies may influence their preference for them, yet these preferences are not wholly based on facts.<br \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My favourite biases are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>\u201c<strong>Anchoring<\/strong>\u201d: The tendency to rely too heavily, or &#8220;anchor&#8221;, on one trait or piece of information when making decisions.<\/li><li>\u201c<strong>Confirmation bias<\/strong>\u201d: The tendency to search for, interpret, focus on and remember information in a way that confirms one&#8217;s preconceptions.<\/li><li>\u201c<strong>Law of the instrument\u201d<\/strong>: An over-reliance on a familiar tool or method, ignoring or under-valuing alternative approaches.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I find these biases fascinating (and yes, I, too, have made a few suboptimal decisions as a result of these biases). Yet, once you acknowledge their existence, you will see these cognitive biases <em>everywhere<\/em>.<br \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, what can you do? Start a discussion at the meta level. Talking about the presence of cognitive biases will help you return to the debate with better decision-making capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article is part of one of Wilco Koorn\u2019s \u201c42 Years of Programming&#8221; series of short stories. Wilco Koorn is a senior developer at Trifork retiring after a long career in the software industry. During this series, he discusses 42 lessons and revelations he\u2019s had throughout his career as a programmer. This series alludes to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u201cIn My Previous Project\u2026\u201d and Other Cognitive Biases - Trifork Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/trifork.nl\/blog\/in-my-previous-project-and-other-cognitive-biases\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cIn My Previous Project\u2026\u201d and Other Cognitive Biases - Trifork Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This article is part of one of Wilco Koorn\u2019s \u201c42 Years of Programming&#8221; series of short stories. 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