The Real Lessons of Lego (for Software)

How many out there have head this: “We want software like Legos, that way we can snap together the pieces we need to build whatever it is we want.” Yes? Heard that? Lets leave aside the fact that software is a damn sight more complex than small plastic bricks, lets leave aside too the fact that Lego makes a fine kids toy but on the whole we don’t use it to build anything we use at work (like a car, bridge or house), and lets pretend these people have a point….

We start with the standard Lego brick:

Of course there are multiple colours:

And a few variations:

Which now allows us to snap together a useful wall:

Walls are good but to build anything more interesting we need some more pieces, maybe some flat pieces:

Or some thinner pieces, or some bigger pieces:


I think we’re heading for a house so we will need some doors and windows:

Personally I like wheels, I like things to move, and so do my kids. So we need some wheels - different size of course, and some means of attaching them to the other Lego blocks:

If we are building a car we need to be able to see out….

Umm… my imagination is running away, we need to steer, and how about a helicopter, and a ramp to load things onto the car/boat/plane/.…
Still, something missing…. people!

Lego is not homogenous, when you say “Lego brick software” people are probably thinking of the first 2x8 block I showed. But to make anything really interesting you need lots of other bits. Some of those bits have very specific uses.