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Part II: Working software over comprehensive documentation
A.K.A. "Working <Product> over comprehensive documentation"
A.K.A. "Drafts are actually cool and you should totally do them please"
A.K.A. "Working <Product> over comprehensive documentation"
A.K.A. "Drafts are actually cool and you should totally do them please"
In the 90s it was common, and today it still happens a lot, that a project has a "study phase" where we try to understand everything we will do and document it before we start doing it
I watched-by once as a project did 2 years of "study" before it started "doing"
I watched-by once as a project did 2 years of "study" before it started "doing"
Some of those projects even went further and separated/segregated the people that did the "studying" from the people that did the "doing"
and do not get me wrong, documentation is awesome an understanding is awesome.
Documentation is all around you, we are very bad at doing it because we do not invest a lot in the skills one needs to do it but we do a lot of it
each email, each powerpoint, each post-it: documents
Documentation is all around you, we are very bad at doing it because we do not invest a lot in the skills one needs to do it but we do a lot of it
each email, each powerpoint, each post-it: documents
Taking time before we do stuff to understand what we will do, to align, to discover and debate our disagreements: it is a powerful thing, it brings us together, it saves a lot of time that we would waste otherwise doing the wrong thing
Expecting that understanding to be perfect before we start doing stuff tho? is the tension point where everything turns toxic https://twitter.com/malk_zameth/status/1359820457894158336
See, if you try to write a book now and you decide that you will never edit, every word you write down will be as is when it will be printed!
if you actually try to do it that way...
it will :
if you actually try to do it that way...
it will :
in the same way and for the same reasons that if you try to go to the Paris-Dakar Rally and try do all the navigation beforehand and write down in a document all the directions you should then proceed to blindly follow to get to the finish line : you will
This all happens because writing a book, racing a rally, writing software and most tasks one does today in most office jobs in big companies are creative tasks
Creative tasks are not linear to effort and time
Every job in its effort has a % of it that is "perspiration" and a % of it that is "inspiration" if you will
And we are the apes that make tools
and tools reduce the perspiration part, a lot
And we are the apes that make tools
and tools reduce the perspiration part, a lot
So we tend to make most office jobs over time to be more and more the "inspiration" "creative" part
but we still treat the jobs as if the ratio was more on the "perspiration"
but we still treat the jobs as if the ratio was more on the "perspiration"
How do you know the difference? Cost of redoing from zero.
If you lose the entire last week of work and restart it from zero monday : how much time will you take to redo your work?
If you lose the entire last week of work and restart it from zero monday : how much time will you take to redo your work?
If you work is, say, cleaning floors: it will take one week
If your work is, say, writing software tho
That happens because you spend most of your week discovering stuff, what other problems arise when I start solving this one? where do I put this line of code? what does it mean to really solve this? etc
Most of your work is spending discovering
Now you could say: but Romeu! Then this is a good argument to understanding everything before we star is it not?
But thing is: doing the work actually makes you discover many things that would be too hard or impossible to see beforehand
Also the battlefield changes while you are in battle, hence things like the OODA loop
that apparently where heavily inspired by the writings of Sun-Tzu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop
that apparently where heavily inspired by the writings of Sun-Tzu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop
But is it true of every problem tho?
No of course not, there are of course problems that we can fully understand before we solve them and problems that we cannot, in Cynefin terms we can talk about the domain of "Clear" vs "Complex"
No of course not, there are of course problems that we can fully understand before we solve them and problems that we cannot, in Cynefin terms we can talk about the domain of "Clear" vs "Complex"
But thing is
- Most companies add a LOT of unnecessary complexity to any given task
- Once a given task becomes really "clear", we tend to automatize it or at least tool it a lot
So over time we increase entropy, by design
- Most companies add a LOT of unnecessary complexity to any given task
- Once a given task becomes really "clear", we tend to automatize it or at least tool it a lot
So over time we increase entropy, by design
So most of our tasks in office jobs of big corps are deeply into the territory where what I am saying here holds true:
- With unknowns that we will uncover while doing
- with added complexities
- creative
and they are treated as they were the opposite
- With unknowns that we will uncover while doing
- with added complexities
- creative
and they are treated as they were the opposite
This is by design of course, as in a company that fetishises control predictability becomes the quality sought upon https://twitter.com/malk_zameth/status/1359838294989824002
And hence there is a pressure to "get it right at the first time" and within that pressure throwing away is seen as waste deep down, no matter how much time it saves you
this ties down deeply into our own biases of being apes addicted to the sensation of speed (a go kart feels fast) more than speed itself ( a boeing 747 does not feel fast)
I talk more about this in this other gigantic thread here : https://twitter.com/malk_zameth/status/1254739820833902598
I talk more about this in this other gigantic thread here : https://twitter.com/malk_zameth/status/1254739820833902598
We cannot easily measure the gigantic cost of "trying to understand things perfectly before we do it" but we can easily measure that "throwing away is waste" and our measures become goals
And yet, the act of doing can illustrate deeply your reflection on how and what to do
and the act of thinking about doing can reduce the waste of doing it
it is a dance
a balancing act
you will be a pain in the ass when you try to push people towards balance
and the act of thinking about doing can reduce the waste of doing it
it is a dance
a balancing act
you will be a pain in the ass when you try to push people towards balance
and that is the invitation of the manifesto: to look at that moment where you are doing blindly and invite people to align/think/plan
and look at the moment where you are lost in analysis and invite people to do a little with you
and look at the moment where you are lost in analysis and invite people to do a little with you
and in both cases there is pain, and you'll need to connect to that pain
and when you'll become a pain in the ass pushing towards that balance, your main enemy will become the short sighted lens of productivism
telling people that they should be in a hurry right now https://twitter.com/malk_zameth/status/1359838306532532224
telling people that they should be in a hurry right now https://twitter.com/malk_zameth/status/1359838306532532224
and the company that separates doers and thinkers is:
"The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fight[er] and the think[er] is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards." https://twitter.com/malk_zameth/status/1359864166404657152
"The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fight[er] and the think[er] is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards." https://twitter.com/malk_zameth/status/1359864166404657152
That was part II of: https://twitter.com/malk_zameth/status/1359823008601374721
