What Swimming Taught Me About Brooks' Law

Swimming is a great activity. It's good cardio, facilities are inexpensive and its ability to help me solve problems cannot be overestimated. Why's that, you may ask? Well, for the simple fact that when you're underwater slugging it out, there's no getting distracted by Social Media or the wife (bless her heart) snuggling up. No, your brain gets a regular supply of oxygen as your body moves, and that's when I do my best thinking.

Swimming is
good for you.

It was during one of these swim sessions where I realized something else about swimming - as an activity, it's startlingly similar to team activities like, you guessed it, software development.

But let's start at the beginning, shall we?

How it all started...

I was in the pool doing laps, on an idyllic weekend afternoon. I remember it being blazing hot. As I languidly knifed through the water with my Breast Stroke, I overtook a guy doing The Crawl. Quite handily, I might add. This is tremendous because The Crawl is considered the significantly more powerful technique. Plus, the guy was maybe ten years younger than I was. I was feeling pretty smug about the situation, overall.

Until we both got overtaken by this old geezer who just blew past us like we were a couple of chumps. Talk about a reality check right there.

Later on, I lounged by poolside and watched as this old man hobbled up the ladder. He seemed to be walking funny. Then I stared. This guy's entire right foot had been sawed off around the ankle. I had been outraced in the pool by a goddamn amputee.

Missing one foot.

Sometimes, I noticed something similar about other swimmers. They might be taller or more athletic-looking. They moved more furiously. But still, I often overtook them in the chillest way possible.

It occured to me, that, just like with the old man and his amputated foot, the way our bodies were built, just wasn't affecting our speed. After all, everyone's body has mostly the same parts but with infinite variances. Some have bigger feet. Some have different weight distributions across their bodies. Some have longer legs, more streamlined hips, things like that. These things may give one the edge in terms of speed, in addition to just putting in more effort.

But all things being equal, it's more a matter of understanding how to coordinate ones body for optimal results.

What does this mean?

Having been swimming regularly for years, I had taken the time to get comfortable with my own body and maximize my performance in the pool, with minimal effort. The old man, similarly, had probably taken decades to be able to swim this fast, this gracefully, with only one foot.

And that's what I think the crux of the matter is - coordination.

Proper limb positioning.

With the Breast Stroke, for example, the legs are often the means of propulsion while the arms are the stabilizers.

Some people put in more work than me in their Breast Stroke. They complete, say, two strokes per second while I go at a pace of one stroke every three seconds. How, then, do I overtake them? Actually, I don't. They hold themselves back.

You see, these vigorous movers are doing more work, but often, when their legs are propelling them forward, their arms are in the wrong position. The arms are spread out, adding underwater resistance and inhibiting the forward propulsion. When my legs are kicking out for the forward propulsion, my arms are straight ahead, fingertips pointed forward, for minimum underwater resistance. When my legs are curled and preparing to kick, my arms are similarly curled and preparing to straighten. There is no other position they would be in; this has been drilled repeatedly into muscle memory: when my legs curl, so do my arms. When they straighten, so do my arms.

And that's just limb positioning. There's more to be said for correct breathing - when to inhale and exhale. For example, a very uncontroversial statement is that inhaling with your head under water is a horrendous idea; I wouldn't recommend it.

All I outlined above, is coordination. And thus, I work less hard underwater, but move faster.

How Brooks' Law applies

There is a well-known saying in software development.

"Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later." - Brooks' Law.

And this is because, when more developers are added to a project, one also needs to factor in the time it takes to bring them up to speed, find their place and get to a point where they start contributing positively. Thus, more people does not necessarily mean greater speed. This was the point that Fred Brooks, the man who coined this phrase, was trying to make.

The more the merrier?

Similarly, in a hypothetical scenario where I grew a third leg (scrub your filthy minds, please) that extra limb would not necessarily speed me up in a swim. Until I took the time to acclimatize to it and use it productively, it might even slow me down.

The Watery Takeaways

More is not always merrier. Additional elements that get in the way of existing elements, is a sign of the need for better coordination, and not more elements. 

Also, more work does not necessarily lead to faster results. Though if you didn't know that by now, you probably haven't been in the workforce long enough.

And finally, coordination has a real time cost, and needs to be accounted for.

Just some swimple truth!
T___T