A Pearl of Wisdom from the Erlang FAQ

A friend of mine was reading the Erlang FAQ and came across this pearl, which I think should become required reading for any PHB who is planning on adopting a new technology, of any form, in an attempt to solve world hunger - and quickly.

<snip>

5.16 ...estimate productivity in an Erlang project?

A rough rule of thumb is that about the same number of lines of code are produced per developer as in a C project. A reasonably complex problem involving distribution and fault tolerance will be roughly five times shorter in Erlang than in C.

The traditional ways of slowing down projects, like adding armies of consultants halfway through, spending a year writing detailed design specifications before any code is written, rigidly following a waterfall model, spreading development across several countries and holding team meetings to decide on the colour of the serviettes used at lunch work just as well for Erlang as for other languages.

</snip>

Now now can you not like Erlang when you find this in the FAQ.