The Fast-Track Philosophy

The fast-track philosophy is very much about mitigating a chasm between advanced capability, and a perceived chaos of freedom. Perhaps one might reference the book: "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" to understand something about this tendency of FLOSS software. I don't know if that really fully embodies the issue per se, but I think it is related. 

The general concept is presented kind of like FLOSS is the Universe, and its limitations in production are like the speed of light, in that there is some natural law preventing it from building highly organized software. It is only capable of creating a bunch of disparate little street venues (a "bazaar"), as opposed to a highly architect-ed system (a cathedral). This is a real can of worms.

The fast-track philosophy is about fast-tracking a set of technical methods/tools of software development and augmentation under a chosen umbrella, or a software system - not as much about directly focusing on features.

According to this philosophy, fast-tracking one set of tools ideally does not exclude the freedom of using other tools. The more gateways left ajar for other tools to be used, the better.

But still fast-tracking is called fast-tracking, because it is about narrowing in on a consolidated set of tools, old and new, and enhancing their usability far beyond other tools. This is what sets it apart. It is also about fast-tracking the purposes of those tools to fill in places that do not yet exist.

A Complex Design Philosophy

Fast-tracking is simple in that it is a desired design direction, but its simple goals exist in a complex context of free and open source software goals and values. In the specific context in which it exists, it is necessarily about how to further its design direction while balancing, and wherever possible, enhancing these larger contextual ideas.

So it becomes more than a general philosophy about consolidating tools for their combined benefits, or about making some things easier. Fast-tracking specifically as a philosophy is very concerned with the hows of accommodating these contextual goals while centrally accelerating a set of use-cases.