When I hear that technology is only a means, I think, “I see.” After that, I often find that my thoughts do not come together well.

Thinking about the reason, I suspect that the planning and business-side perspective and the development and engineering-side perspective are saying quite different things, and that each side often uses the phrase in a way convenient to itself. Honestly, I think it is a phrase that easily creates misunderstanding.

From the business-side perspective (note 1), because problem solving is what matters, saying that technology is a means means let’s focus on problem solving, and I think that is very important. On the other hand, this phrase can be received as dismissing technology.

(Note 1) This is unrelated to department. Engineers should have a business-side perspective, and planners should have an engineering-side perspective.

In my own position, I am often caught between both sides in the things I think about day to day. So I will summarize the programmer’s view of the idea that technology is only a means.

First, organize the preconditions.

(1) Focusing on problem solving is important. This can also be called the customer’s perspective.

(2) On top of that, programmers need the knowledge to choose the best means.

(3) And those means keep changing with the times.

Considering these conditions, from the engineering-side perspective, saying that technology is only a means means that we must have the courage to abandon old means while also having the ability to use the best means at each moment. Therefore, we need to keep catching up with new technologies. (Note 2)

(Note 2) So I want to tell people on the business side that it is important for programmers to learn new technologies, just as it is important to tell programmers that problem solving matters.

Of course, depending on the situation, there will be times when choosing mature technology is better than choosing the newest technology. Or rather, it would be bad to keep introducing the latest things without considering future prospects or the team’s skill level. But it is also bad to keep developing without using frameworks or to ignore mobile trends.

Keeping up with both mature and new technologies, finding balance, and having development ability that steadily produces high productivity: only when we can do that can we say that technology is a means.

Reference articles

技術は手段にすぎない。クックパッド勝間氏が語る、いかにして「ユーザーファースト」を実現するか？ | HRナビ by リクルート _長年ユーザーに愛され続ける料理レシピのサイト「クックパッド」。1998年のオープン当初から今に至るまで変わらない基本機能が「レシピを探すこと」「レシピを投稿すること」。この、ユーザーが行える2つの機能のうち「レシピ投稿」の利用体験を最大…_hrnabi.com

「技術は手段」について考える - maru source _こんにちは丸山@ h13i32maru です。 …_blog.h13i32maru.jp

「技術は手段であると心得よう」 元AWSエバンジェリスト堀内 康弘氏が経験を語る _7月26日に産業技術大学院大学にて「July Tech Festa 2015」が開催されました。基調講演に登壇したのは、元AWSエバンジェリストの堀内康弘氏。クラウド時代のエンジニアはどのようなスキル、マインドを目指すべきなのか、独自の…_www.sbbit.jp

PHPの生みの親，ラスマス・ラードフ氏インタビュー _2015年12月に 無事公開されたPHP7。その公開に先立ってPHPの生みの親である ラスマス・ラードフ 氏に話を伺う機会がありました。英語で行われた一時間のインタビューは長大ですがラスマス氏の思想がよく分かる話題が多く，可能な限りその…_gihyo.jp