If you have a conviction, you should never stop advocating for it, even if it seems like everything has been said and you might sound repetitive. This is especially true in matters related to good practices in software development.
Let's take Test-Driven Design (TDD) as an example of a practice we want to promote. When someone talks about TDD publicly, like in a meetup, more people become aware of its existence and begin to adopt it. As more people practice TDD, more advocates for the practice emerge, who are eager to give new talks about its benefits. This creates a virtuous cycle of reinforcement that.
So far so good, but no cycle can grow indefinitely, and there is usually a limit to its expansion.
As more people learn and practice TDD, there are fewer people left to discover it, and demand for the topic decreases. This reduces the motivation to give talks about the subject, for fear of not bringing anything new or sounding repetitive. This creates a stable balance between supply and demand.
If we combine both cycles, we can see how the demand for talks and the number of people who know or practice TDD fluctuates. The problem with this is that, if we stop talking about the subject, these fluctuations could lead to a decrease in the adoption of the practice for a while until demand recovers.
This phenomenon can also be observed if we simulate it as a system of flows and stocks.
Run the simulation and observe how the number of people who stop adopting the practice, the number of talks, and their demand fluctuate.
These oscillations are something I've noticed in the Audiense Engineering team. Once we feel confident that most of us are familiar with certain practices, new members join, and we take longer to realize that we need to continue promoting them.
The conclusion I draw from all this is that ideally, there should be no periods of decline, and I can think of no other solution than to ignore the demand and persevere with our topic. We must continue defending our beliefs, even if it seems like we are repeating ourselves.
