The Problem-Solving Mind

"To a problem-solving mind, it is beyond excruciating to see a problem, know the solution, and not be allowed to implement it."

All the more so if you experience the consequences of that problem personally and regularly. Even a small rock in your shoe can become all-consuming if you’re never allowed to stop and get it out.

The invitation to Apathy: When a problem-solver is told they aren't allowed to solve the problem, they eventually stop looking for them. They check out. Doing only what is explicitly asked until they find somewhere else.

If you want to keep your best problem-solvers, give them some sovereignty over their tools.

Instead of a blanket "No," try building a "Fix-It Budget." Give the team time every sprint to to clear the path and pick the rocks out of their shoes. Don't ask them to justify the ROI of every single refactor; trust that they know which pains are the most acute.

Excerpts from Aaron Goldy, Business Systems Architect

source: LinkedIn post

Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Widely quoted, but here is one source: https://abbiedeloachfoundation.com/which-are-you-somebody-anybody-everybody-or-nobody/

On Freedom and Equality

 “Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, they are not free.” 

 

Attributed to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Trials and Temptations

Trials make doing right hard. Temptations make doing wrong easy.

JavaScript: The Good Parts

Closure

An inner or nested function can reference variables in its outer functions, even after the outer function has exited, such as when the outer function returns the inner function.

Currying

A function is given some arguments and returns a function that will be passed the rest of the arguments later. This has two benefits: complex arguments can be calculated once and stored, and the number of arguments is reduced.

Memoization

I just call this caching the function result in a Dictionary.

Greet conflict

 "Greet conflict in a positive way, be ready to learn something new or improve the relationship."

Stephen Haunts

Training ranks high

"Technical people have a much stronger affiliation with their profession than their company," said Tim Walsh, vice president of research for Blessing/White, a human resources firm. "When you ask them what they do, they'll say, 'I'm a systems engineer,' and who they work for is kind of irrelevant."

Because of the emphasis technical people put on self-reliance and the speed with which technology changes, offering training ranks high when it comes to recruiting technology employees.

"Technical people have this very strong fear of obsolescence, they always feel that they have to be up to date," Walsh said. "If they feel that they are working on a technology that's getting old and they aren't getting opportunities to hone their skills, they're going to move."

By Jonathan Gaw, Minneapolis Star Tribune

source: NH Sunday News, Manchester, NH January 18, 1998 page 3D

Quod tegitur

Simpliciter pateat vitium fortasse pusillum:

Quod tegitur, magnum creditur esse malum

Let a defect, which is possibly but small, appear undisguised.

A fault concealed is presumed to be great.

 

Variant translation: Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst.

https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martial

My own take on this is:

• Secrecy breeds Suspicion
• Transparency breeds Trust

Thumos

Thumos likewise constitutes the “seat of energy that can fill a person,” and serves as the active agent within man. It is the stimulus, the drive, the juice to action — the thing that makes the blood surge in your veins. Philosopher Sam Keen got at the idea with his concept of “the fire in the belly.”

Got Thumos?

Brett & Kate McKay • March 11, 2013 Last updated: November 11, 2018

 

step right up

"success goes to the man who’s still able to step right up to the threshold of risk, conflict, and challenge – who can talk to people face-to-face, have difficult conversations in person, ask directly for what he wants, put himself out there."

source: Sunday Firesides: Shorter Weapons; Longer Boundaries

Brett and Kate McKay • June 22, 2019