During Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing a couple of weeks ago, he was asked a question frequently discussed on Reddit—would
you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck?
We’re not here to get political, but this question got us thinking—can you really choose?
In custom software, all our problems start as horse-sized ducks. They’re big and they’re often rare.
Fortunately, scrum helps us break big, complex issues into simple(r) duck-sized horses. So, although they’re
unique, we can work through the more manageable, duck-sized issues—even if they’re things we don’t encounter every day.
In case you are curious, Neil Gorsuch didn’t really answer the question, and I’m not sure I blame him. Depending on the day, I would probably answer the question differently.
What would you choose?