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Discussion on: OOPS! I made a framework

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Tommy Hodgins

I think there's a lot to be said about the distinction between "exploring solutions in an unknown problem space" and "applying a known solution in a well-defined problem space". I treat frameworks kind of like time-capsules about the practices generally considered 'best-practice' toward providing a certain solution in a defined problem area.

If you don't yet know what the shape of your solution, or even the shape of your problem are yet? You don't know enough to evaluate what frameworks might help you.

But if there's a well-defined problem, with many well-known solutions - I think it would be a little daft in most situations to ignore the best-practices of the present day and build something else. It might be worthwhile for education, or if you're trying to actively (consciously) improve over the state of the art, but in most situations it makes sense to pick the framework that most closely models the solution you're trying to provide.

Another way to think of frameworks like like a pre-flight checklist. If you don't know what you're doing, grabbing a pre-made checklist may not help you, but if you know you're flying an airplane, and a specific model of an airplane, I bet there's a really good pre-flight checklist for that model of plane that would be wise to follow before flying it.