Does Sage 9 Make You Nervous?

  • I’ve already learned it / I’m excited to learn it
  • I’m nervous about all the new things
  • I’m turned off by the new things I’ll need to learn / I won’t use it

0 voters

Sage 9 is Soon!

The team indicates that, if all goes well, Sage 9 should be shipping a stable version within the next few weeks, which is very exciting.

Some recent discussion and threads here on Discourse, though, got me thinking about the general impression of Sage 9 among the community.

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad 9?

Okay that header is divisive.

Sage 9 introduces a lot of new technologies to the Sage theme building process: Blade, Webpack, the removal of bower, etc. might add up to make Sage 9 seem more daunting.

This is, I think, a marketing problem more than anything; the team has been, understandably, focused on getting the actual product finished and shipped rather than a marketing blitz to explain the product to people.

The updated book will help with this but I also want to hear from the community:

Does the impending Sage 9 make you nervous? Why? How can this community and the team help you feel more confident in learning it?

Let us know. We want to help.

2 Likes

Thanks for raising the topic and for all your work on Sage!

tl;dr

To some, the second and third poll responses may amount to “I’m nervous and don’t like learning.” Even when true, people probably won’t choose a response implying “I lack courage.” Results may be skewed.

I imagine a poll item “I don’t have time to integrate the new stuff into my workflow” could end up the most popular, but I’m not saying the poll should be changed.

more notes

Although I do think the psychological is a relevant factor, a la “fixed” vs. “growth” mindset (mindsetonline.com – good book, no matter your opinion of the site’s design), I think the primary factor could be simple logistics.

For some, Sage 9 requires only incremental learning. It’s quick and exciting. But I imagine the majority of users are vastly less experienced. Their recent experiences adopting new tools and abstractions likely involved days, weeks, or months of grinding confusion and perceived loss of productivity. (This kind of thing happens to me all the time.)

Even if adopting Sage 9 would be quick, it’s an unknown for these people. Their evaluation may be that they can’t afford the potential time “lost” in the short term, even if they’re interested in learning and know the investment would pay off in the long term.

I don’t have a very developed opinion on whether Sage should position itself for newer vs. experienced developers. However, I think Sage’s unique value has been in using the best tools and techniques for the job, which leans toward the experienced developers.

I’ve only offered an interpretation of the situation, no suggestions. I agree the upcoming Sage 9 book will help the adoption process be less daunting and more predictable.

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That’s good feedback, @fullyint. I want people to be honest about why they might not leap to adopt the new thing. We might not be able to address each concern, but we might make Sage 9 feel more accessible. Perhaps the poll language puts people in an uncomfortable position; that wasn’t my intent.

I’m a serial adopter of The New Thing, so the transition from Sage 8 to Sage 9 was logical and smooth for me, and as such I have very little useful insight into what might hold someone back, which is what I’m hoping to gain here.

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No more nervous than when I first came to Sage 8.

But because I got comfortable with 8, 9 freaks me out the same way learning anything new does.

I think my nerves about this project come from this community seemingly forging ahead into 9 pre-release and without complete documentation. Where the official guide book to 8 was something I referred to over and over while learning how to use it.

Probably 99% of the tools that Trellis/Sage uses I don’t encounter anywhere else in my job (self employed, I stick to my lane) so it’s not like I came to Sage 9 with any understanding of what any of this new stuff was.

I’m also really averse to trying the hottest latest new thing until it’s had time to settle.

My “a-ha” moment recently was the fact that you can still build a theme in Sage 9 without taking advantage of Blade/Controllers. So the sites I’m currently working on I’m coding in all my PHP logic as-usual, and then piece-by-piece taking advantage of all the Blade stuff as I come across it. So my plan is to learn the advantages incrementally by doing, over time.


I often look back at the new things I’ve learned – when I’m struggling to learn something new – and wonder how I ever managed it. It’s a weird cycle we do to struggle with something, master it, and then move on and struggle all over again. But I’m sure it’s making me a better coder than someone who installs purchased Themes for a living… :stuck_out_tongue: