How do you know what to order in a restaurant when you don’t know what’s good? Well, if you let the chef choose, you can probably assume a good meal, even before you know what “good” is. That is omakase. A way to eat well that requires you neither be an expert in the cuisine nor blessed with blind luck at picking in the dark. -
For programming, the benefits of this practice, letting others assemble your stack, is similar to those we derive from Convention over Configuration, but at a higher level. Where CoC is occupied with how we best use individual frameworks, omakase is concerned with which frameworks, and how they fit together. -
This is at odds with the revered programming tradition of presenting available tools as individual choices, and to bestow the individual programmer privilege (and burden!) of deciding. -
You’ve surely heard, and probably nodded to, “use the best tool for the job”. It sounds so elementary as to be beyond debate, but being able to pick the “best tool” depends on a foundation that allows “best” to be determined with confidence. This is much harder than it seems. -
It is a problem similar to that of the diner in a restaurant. And like picking each course in an eight-set meal, picking each individual library or framework is not a job done in isolation. The objective in both cases is to consider the whole evening or system. -
So with Rails we decided to diminish one good, a programmer’s individual privilege to choose each tool in their box, for a greater one: A better tool box for all. The dividends are legion: +
How do you know what to order in a restaurant when you don’t know what’s good? Well, if you let the chef choose, you can probably assume a good meal, even before you know what “good” is. That is omakase. A way to eat well that requires you neither be an expert in the cuisine nor blessed with blind luck at picking in the dark.
+For programming, the benefits of this practice, letting others assemble your stack, is similar to those we derive from Convention over Configuration, but at a higher level. Where CoC is occupied with how we best use individual frameworks, omakase is concerned with which frameworks, and how they fit together.
+This is at odds with the revered programming tradition of presenting available tools as individual choices, and to bestow the individual programmer privilege (and burden!) of deciding.
+You’ve surely heard, and probably nodded to, “use the best tool for the job”. It sounds so elementary as to be beyond debate, but being able to pick the “best tool” depends on a foundation that allows “best” to be determined with confidence. This is much harder than it seems.
+It is a problem similar to that of the diner in a restaurant. And like picking each course in an eight-set meal, picking each individual library or framework is not a job done in isolation. The objective in both cases is to consider the whole evening or system.
+So with Rails we decided to diminish one good, a programmer’s individual privilege to choose each tool in their box, for a greater one: A better tool box for all. The dividends are legion: