7 learnings on how to tackle unknown, big and risky projects.

1. RubyConf | São Paulo 2017

2. Big
Risky
Unknown

3. Big
Risky
Unknown
Hobby
InvestmentGamble

4. Big
Risky
Unknown
Hobby
InvestmentGamble

5. Unknown, Big and Risky

7. Unknown, Big and Risky

8. ● High level language (Ruby-like) with near-native performance (close to C)
● 5+ years
● 9500 followers in Github
● $2.000 + donations per month from more than 100 organizations and
individuals

9. ● Loved Ruby syntax
● Disliked dynamic typing

10. Compile ruby code to LLVM

12. First “real” version of the parser

14. Drop some self-imposed constraints

15. My experience of using crystal in production.
1.5 month ago i rewrite our critical ruby service (EventMachine, 2000 SLOC) to crystal
(900 SLOC). It was quite easy, i spend only a week.Service listen on socket and handle
10M/requests per day. It running as daemon and getting-updating values in memory.
Also it listen on http, to render simple Admins, have ~10 coroutines with cron_scheduler
to some updates on memory, and ~20 coroutines with outcoming socket connections.
I don’t want to rewrite it to Go because i need readable code for our Ruby team for easy
maintaining.
Now it running in production for a month without restart. Used 185Mb, peak cpu usage 30%
(ruby daemon leaking memory and restarting every day, peak cpu usage was > 100% (maybe
300%)).
We are quite happy.
[...]

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18. ● Release 1.0
● Fundraise
● Improve transparency and communications
● Augment the core team

19. 1. Valid problem, adjacent innovation and fun
2. Start!
3. Show it early
4. Be patient
a. Optimal stopping
5. Share it as “non-finito”
6. Build on communities
7. Enlist Starters, Implementers and Finishers

20. ● Unknown but “Adjacent Innovation”
● Big but Fun
● Risky but “Valid problem”
Big
Risky
Unknown
Valid problem
Fun
Adjacent
innovation

21.
Believe in yourself Strawman Experiment mindset

24. Don’t rush: attack and withdraw

25. ● Decide what’s the max time you have for something
● Spend 1/3 evaluating options and studying the solution space
(don’t settle for any yet)
● Get to work and go with the first thing that is better than what you evaluated
so far.

26. Share it as “non-finito”

28. Start
10% of time
1/3 of effort
Implementation
80% of time
1/3 of effort
Finalize
10% of time
1/3 of effort
Effortrequired
Duration of the project
You need Starters, Implementers and Finishers

29. 1. Valid problem, adjacent innovation and fun
2. Start!
3. Show it early
4. Be patient
a. Optimal stopping
5. Share it as “non-finito”
6. Build on communities
7. Enlist Starters, Implementers and Finishers

31. openredis Fly.io tpberntsenposthumanism Fabio Akita
_TOP 5 SPONSORS_
Me (Nico)
Manas.Tech
Crystal
@nditada
@manastech
@CrystalLanguage