Bruce Lee was a movie star, a philosopher, and the father of mixed martial arts. He knew a thing or two about kicking ass. As it turns out, Bruce Lee could teach you how to kick ass in computer programming, too.

Bruce Lee on Flexibility

“Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.”

Central to Bruce Lee’s philosophy is the importance of being adaptive, rather than predictive or prescriptive. As the bamboo sways to the shifting wind, so must the developer embrace ever-changing business needs. Bruce Lee was a practitioner of Agile four decades before Agile was a thing. Be water, my friend, but not waterfall.

Bruce Lee on Simplicity

“To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts lies in its simplicity. The easy way is also the right way, and martial arts is nothing at all special; the closer to the true way of martial arts, the less wastage of expression there is.”

Have you ever needed to write a convoluted program on a job interview? Many believe that the ability to grapple complexity demonstrates coding aptitude. This may be true, but the master programmer does not revel in complexity. She goes out of her way to reduce it. Bruce Lee knew to keep things as simple and streamlined as possible.

Bruce Lee on Effort

“The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.”

This is a strange quote from someone who trained fanatically. But I think it means that if Bruce Lee built products, he would focus on delivering the most value from the least amount of effort. He would build the minimum viable product! Strike hard, fast, and efficiently at your problems. If a quick solution gets you 80% of the way there, that may be better than spending much more time on the ultimate, complete, 360° roundhouse kick solution.

Bruce Lee on Being Lean

“It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.”

Bruce Lee had a spartan outlook. Do less, and get rid of things that you don’t need. Be merciless about how you spend your time. Does your current task deliver high value? If not, give it a one-inch punch and find something that does. Treat your code base the same way. More code is more maintenance.

Bruce Lee on Analysis Paralysis

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.”

It’s very easy to fall into a trap of indecision, and to second-guess every choice. Bruce Lee knew that it was better to make quick decisions to maintain momentum. When making decisions about software, the cost of over-analysis is often higher than the cost of following the wrong path. And if you choose incorrectly, just adjust course when necessary with what you’ve learned.

Bruce Lee on People Over Process

“Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.”

Bruce Lee knew not to let codified rules overtake individual judgment. It’s all too easy to drink the Kool-Aid. “Scrum says we must do X!” Don’t ever accept any system as religion, because there’s no single prescription for every team. Your process should grow and change to fit the people on your team, not the other way around.

Bruce Lee on Selective Application

“Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.”

Bruce Lee recognizes the fallacy of the developer who says, “MongoDB is so fast. I will use MongoDB for everything!” The truth is that different technologies are good for different applications. If your situation calls for transactionality across multiple documents, a relational database might be a better bet. Understand why you are punching, and why you are kicking.

Bruce Lee on Growth

“Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.”

True growth can only come from reflection. Bruce Lee developed his philosophy after formal training, empiricism, and deep introspection. He internalized what he considered to be useful, and discarded all else. A lot of people like to tell you what to do when it comes to writing software (this blog, for instance). Try a lot of things, weed out the noise, and decide for yourself! Only then can you find your own voice.

Bruce Lee on Happiness

“Be happy, but never satisfied.”

Finally, be sure you enjoy what life has to offer, but never become complacent. If you’re like Bruce Lee, kicking total ass makes you happy. Always try to take your code Kung Fu to the next level. Keep learning new things, and keep kicking ass.

Channel your inner Bruce Lee, and become a computer programming force of nature! Whaaa-aaaa-aaah-ya!

Photo Credits:

Featured: Bruce Lee, Enter the Dragon
One, Bamboo: Steve Webel via photopin cc
Two, Horizon: A Guy Taking Pictures via photopin cc
Three, Basset Hound: minor9th via photopincc
Four, Scales: puffclinty via photopincc
Five: The Matrix, Red pill or blue pill?
Six: Da Vinci, Vitruve Luc Viatour
Seven, Lemur: Etrusia UK via photopincc
Eight, Monk: Marius Arnesen via photopin cc
Nine: Succes Kid