My way of convincing my lab to use version control was showing them how if we introduced a bug into the software running our experiment, I could have the code back to the way it was the previous day in less than 30 seconds. That plus being able to upgrade all of the experimental rigs to new software in just as little time. Win-win. Totally worth the occasional pain of losing one's head. ;-)
On Tue, Mar 1, 2016 at 5:23 AM, Greg Wilson <[email protected] > wrote: > Re-reading Arjun Raj's post ( > http://rajlaboratory.blogspot.ca/2016/02/from-reproducibility-to-over.html), > I've got a couple of thoughts. First, I think some of the disparaging > comments on Twitter and elsewhere were unhelpful: they're unlikely to get > the author to change his mind, and it discourages other people from talking > about what they do. > > Second, we all make the same decision he does most of the time. For > example, people tell me I'd be more productive if I used Haskell instead of > Python, or the Atom editor, or Slack, or blah blah blah. In almost every > case, I compare the time I have to make the change, the time it'll take for > the change to pay off, and the likelihood of the technology's fans being > right about the benefits, and decide "nope" - and I'm willing to bet you do > too. I'm probably wrong in some cases, but with so many new things flying > around, I can't be certain which ones, and hey, deadlines... > > So here are my questions: > > 1. What's LD50 [1] for version control, i.e., how long would people have > to use it (or watch someone else use) for half of them to be convinced it's > worth adopting? I think LD50 for the Unix shell is less than an hour, > because that's how long it takes us to introduce pipes and loops, which > most workshop participants find compelling. At what point do at least half > of workshop participants find Git compelling enough to actually adopt it? > > 2. What should we say to someone like Arjun? It's clear from his post > that he knows the arguments in favor of version control, and has actually > tried it. It's also clear that he cares about doing things well - what can > we do to convince someone like that? > > Thanks, > Greg > > [1] https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/LD50 > > -- > Dr Greg Wilson > Director of Instructor Training > Software Carpentry Foundation > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > > http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org >
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