February 27, 2008 
Wow, the parallels in Dr. Ariely new book “Predictably Irrational” to the Software Requirments Gathering process are unintentional but powerful.
“Xiang Yu was a Chinese general in the third century B.C. who took his troops across the Yangtze River into enemy territory and performed an experiment in decision making. He crushed his troops’ cooking pots and burned their ships.
He explained this was to focus them on moving forward — a motivational speech that was not appreciated by many of the soldiers watching their retreat option go up in flames. But General Xiang Yu would be vindicated, both on the battlefield and in the annals of social science research.
He is one of the role models in Dan Ariely’s new book, “Predictably Irrational,” an entertaining look at human foibles like the penchant for keeping too many options open. General Xiang Yu was a rare exception to the norm, a warrior who conquered by being unpredictably rational.
Most people can’t make such a painful choice, not even the students at a bastion of rationality like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Dr. Ariely is a professor of behavioral economics. In a series of experiments, hundreds of students could not bear to let their options vanish, even though it was obviously a dumb strategy (and they weren’t even asked to burn anything).
The experiments involved a game that eliminated the excuses we usually have for refusing to let go.. In the real world, we can always tell ourselves that it’s good to keep options open.
You don’t even know how a camera’s burst-mode flash works, but you persuade yourself to pay for the extra feature just in case. You no longer have anything in common with someone who keeps calling you, but you hate to just zap the relationship.”
How many of us have fought business analysts who want ‘everything configurable’ and to deploy ‘every feature’? Frankly, I can’t think of any bigger timesink for software teams these days.
See the full article and NYT review at: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors – New York Times
Do I detect a hint of a Jason Fried developing in you?
Lifehacker on the same parallel: http://lifehacker.com/361955/get-things-done-by-closing-a-few-doors
Blake, is looks like I beat DHH to the comparison by 2 days….
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/889-sunspots-the-skillful-edition