Collage of Thoughts - V

Input: x + y = 10. Ask: Solve x and y within a 10% error margin. You look at them with rolling eyes. You tell them that's an infinite space of possibilities!! No takers for your answer. You are outnumbered - they are 20, you are 1. Sounds familiar?

#commonsense #majorityrule

To the layman user, the world begins-ends-and-revolves around the user-interface. S/he is happily unaware of the vast complex universe behind that makes the system a (pleasant) living reality. And that's perhaps how it should be.

When it comes to businesses, however, it is not only childish but also suicidal to be ignorant of; or, to wish away the role, size or, complexity of any work that is not directly "demoable". Businesses particularly have a hard time appreciating any effort spent on the non-functional; as they are the most "invisible", hardest-to-track by non-techies, and not instantly encashable in fancy demos.

Every architecture scales and performs in powerpoint. For businesses overly exposed to presentations, the quality attributes are mere clichés which magically get realized. Whereas nobody has ever seen a ppt execute to prove itself; code does everyday.

The next time you hear wild words being thrown at you - "quick", "agile", "demo", "mvp", "ai/ml" - with tons of features squeezed into a crazy timeline; you know exactly where the person is coming from - the user interface is his/her universe; and the vast complex system beyond simply doesn't exist. Sherlock Holmes would have remarked - "Dear Watson - You see, but you do not observe!" :-)

#seeing #observing

Architecture/Design is not just about drawing and connecting boxes. Coding is not just about typing syntax. Just like the last book you read - unless it was absolute crass - was not about frantically typing away words on paper.

Any finished artifact you "see" is the outcome of a creative and intellectual thought-process. The thought-process itself cannot be "seen". The only way to understand it is to have the ability to (critically) appreciate the artifact itself. Length is not a reliable measure of the thought or work that has gone in, and may well have an inverse relation. Whoever said it (Mark Twain?) - "I didn't have the time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one". Economy of expression is often a sign of a clear, well-rested mind performing at an optimal, but controlled speed - whereas length is often a sign of rawness, noise and unfinished work left behind due to intellectual lethargy or lack of time.

Any team rightly deserves a manager who understands the work they produce. You are not a mail-forwarding proxy server, and you are not a calendar. Those functions can be automated. They look up to you as a human being in possession of a sound mind that can independently think and judge; and a spine that can stand up for what is right.

#knowledgeindustry #leadership

[Re-posted from my recently authored posts on LinkedIn]