It Fits In My Head

This is what LeoScott says of XP: ItFitsInMyHead

I wish he would have created a page to tell how Xp can fit in a person's head. To me XP is complex and incomplete, and as such doesn't lend itself well to being in one's head. To me it seems that XP is more like a painting, a book, or statue, it is an expression of form and substance which is incorporated by its creation.

On second thought, Xp is more like an art gallery, a library or a museum, where the expressions are similar, but different. The painting are mainly done on canvas, the books on pages and the statues carved in stone.

The only thing about the characterization made here that fits in my head is the commonality that exists in media, not the expression and inspiration evident in the creation of the masterpieces.

The metaphors used: Painting, Writing and Sculpturing are related to the discipline common to most wikizens, that of programming. While XP is presented as a methodology of incremental achievement, it seems to me to be more a matter of eXPerience and eXPertise. One can only do XP if one can program well, just as one can only do Art if one can paint or sketch. One can only do these things well as a result of first-hand experience.

I have trouble making a transformation of the metaphors when it comes to PairProgramming. I cannot see where one could pairPaint a masterpiece, or pairSculpt a statue. The concept of pairWriting, however is conceivable, due primarily to the fact that one can easily change what one writes.

In the case of Once and Only once, the metaphors are more in agreement with painting and sculpting, since change is much more difficult, which is the case of writing large and complicated programs.

Q: Can a team "do" XP if no one on the team has "done" XP before? If ItFitsInMyHead, I would think that the answer could be "yes".

A1: I think at least one person on the team needs ToGrok XP, else how will the team know when it is doing PrettyAdventuresomeProgramming?

I would like to propse renaming to "XpFitsInMyHead?", with reference to FitsInMyHead? as a more generic topic.

For example, enough of PerlLanguage FitsInMyHead? that I can quickly and usefully do anything I care to try. I'm sure that LispLanguage would fit to a similar extent, but the transfer bandwidth is too low at the moment. -- MatthewAstley