> The RFC approach has several advantages over verbal alignment. First of all, it is more precise. The need to write forces the author to clearly structure their thoughts into a coherent logical narrative. While writing, the author has time to examine their proposed solution from different angles and clearly see pros and cons of it.

> Another advantage of the document over verbal explanation is that a well-written RFC leaves little room for misinterpretation. It can include diagrams, examples, or calculations to illustrate and support the idea.

> Finally, we can return and reread the RFC later. Human memory is unreliable; already after a day, details that were crystal clear in one’s mind start to get blurry. When these details are written down, it is easy to review them at any time.

‘You have to write things down, because spoken words disappear into the air,’ was one of the first bits of feedback I received in my teacher training.

> The most common objection is that writing proposals is “a waste of time” compared to writing code.

The extra time spent writing is actually spent thinking.

>> The most common objection is that writing proposals is “a waste of time” compared to writing code.

> The extra time spent writing is actually spent thinking.

Common theme for decades is "we can save a few days of planning with just a few weeks of programming".

But then there's the darker realization that sometimes the people you are working for are incapable of reasoning about planning artefacts or understanding how the system will look or operate simply from a document. So you need to present the system in small iterative chunks and repeatedly re-align expectations with reality: Agile.

And sometimes you genuinely need to do exploratory work which doesn't fit into a planning framework - actual research!

>> The most common objection is that writing proposals is “a waste of time” compared to writing code.

> The extra time spent writing is actually spent thinking.

Until someone decides that using ChatGPT to write your RFC is a good idea. Then you get something that looks great, but the person behind the prompt actually understands less.