---
title: Hype Trains
published_at: 2016-07-20T05:53:26Z
---

One thing that the tech industry does well is hype. An idea gets pitched once,
and momentum around it grows as more people dip their toes in and begin selling
it themselves. This often takes the form of a series of blog posts that hit
Hacker News.

Here are a few technologies and ideas that I remember seeing a lot of hype
around during their early release:

* Node.JS.
* Agile methodology.
* MongoDB.
* EventMachine.
* Callback-based programming paradigms.
* Companies should be all remote with no managers.
* Frameworks bad; libraries good.
* Static site generators.

In retrospect, I now know that many of these things weren't net positives.

While as an industry we seem to be great at building and driving hype trains,
we're not so good at dismantling them when the situation calls for it.

I'd posit that companies that have had a major hand in selling a technology
might have some moral responsibility in helping to tip the scale back in the
other direction if and when they discover that it's not quite as romantic as
they'd originally portrayed. The justification is simple: starting to use a new
technology is a lengthy commitment, and tearing it out is a huge effort. If
it's discovered that certain pieces of technology are bad applies, a
well-written piece on the subject can save tens of thousands of misdirected
engineering hours throughout the rest of the industry.

Not everything is unambiguously bad of course, but some things are, and should
be avoided in practically every imaginable situation. A few of those are listed
above.

_Thesis_

Add draft for "Hype Trains"
Add draft for "Hype Trains"


Former-commit-id: 72f136ea2f6be1af4c1f4d470967c68322cf4318