Make Mechanical Advantage YOUR Advantage: How to modernize & futureproof your code with OpenRewrite

So-called simple solutions are usually the most elegant. Experts make difficult tasks look easy. The smartest people make complex concepts easily understood.

These are truisms. And while supposed exceptions can be offered, they are actually validation, e.g. brute-force “kludges” aren’t simple in the context of lifecycle, and the smartest people understand the problem, the solution, AND the audience.

Our toolbelts now include AI, which is wonderful addition. But most problems are not wholly AI-shaped or are better addressed - more quickly and/or at lower cost - using one of the many other tools available. Or by combining one of more of them.

Mechanical Advantage refers to the use of one or more “simple machines” to create a force multiplier and accomplish great feats with little effort. Consider these basic physical items we see but often overlook:

• Lever and fulcrum
• Wheel and axle
• Pulley
• Inclined plane
• Wedge
• Screw

Each of these tools enables outsized results from small efforts. Combining them amplifies outputs while further reducing inputs! But mechanical advantage doesn’t apply only to the physical world. Software equivalents usually center on things such as:

• Patterns
• Idempotency
• Repeatability
• Consistency

By applying one of more of these concepts to software, quality can dramatically improve and scarce resources can be freed for more valuable efforts.

Engineering teams face an ever-growing mound of outdated code and unfolding security vulnerabilities that can slow your organization’s momentum…or stop it in its tracks.

Come to this session to learn how to put Mechanical Advantage to work for maximum payoff with minimum effort.