Why “Throwaway” Is Ok

I’m a bit of a pack-rat.

Meaning I find it hard to throw anything away.

I used to be a compulsive pack-rat saving everything I ever acquired.

My rationale was usually one or more of the following.

• One day I may need it
• It’s a  collectable – a memento of a special occasion 
• It was such a good deal, I had to buy ten of them because one day, I may need them

So, I didn’t want to throw anything away.

That is until my Marie Kondo-ish wife strong-armed and convinced me otherwise.

Her rationale was 

“If you haven’t used it for awhile then get rid of it.” 

Or

“That shirt is way too big for you”

Or

“You got that on sale didn’t you?”

Or

“What are you? A little kid?”

Followed by

“Do you really want your kids to have to deal with all your junk only to toss it all when you’re long gone?”

Junk!?

Well, one person’s junk is another person’s treasure.

This tendency to avoid throwing anything away extends to business. If you’ve paid money for something, you expect to get value from it for as long as possible and not turn around and throw it away as soon as you’ve purchased it.

A senior leader recently exclaimed:

“We don’t want throwaway!”

This was in response to a list of options for moving forward on the development of a software product. 

I get it. Funding was tight and she wanted a positive return on any investment. She was only interested in those options that were guaranteed to form part of the final product. She didn’t want to pay for any development that was temporary, risky or exploratory in nature. Development that would be, in her mind, “throwaway”. 

There are a few challenges with her aspiration.

1. Unless the product being developed is the umpteenth release of an existing product, software development is inherently risky. There are no guarantees that what is built will be valued or even used. According to a variety of industry market research reports, only 20-33% of software product features are used frequently. 
2. What you think “done” looks like is a moving target in terms of both what and how. It would be like Leonardo da Vinci painting his Mona Lisa masterpiece from scratch in one fell swoop without any preliminary sketches to share and get feedback from his patron.
3. What one considers to be “throwaway” may not be “throwaway” to another.

On the last point, it is a matter of perspective and mindset. In the book Lean UX, authors Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden contrast the difference between “developing-for-production” and “prototyping-to-learn”. Building on that difference, here’s how I would contrast the difference when it comes to perspectives and mindsets on throwaway.

• If you’re 100% certain about the future, you’ll never have throwaway and whatever you develop will always go to production. How often has that happened for you?
• On the other hand, if there’s any uncertainty about future expectations or needs, then some preliminary prototyping or experimentation will go a long way to uncovering and discovering more knowledge and increasing certainty. The code or other artifacts developed along the way may be thrown out and not make it into the final production release. However, the learning acquired along the way is invaluable and not throwaway. How might that learning contribute towards what finally makes it into production?

Code may be throwaway; learning is not throwaway

My wife may want to throw away my 1992 Blue Jays World Series souvenir pennant because it’s so yesterday. I don’t see it that way. Every time I look at it, it fills my bucket with warm, fond and exciting memories that I’ll treasure forever.

Throw that away? Never!