Nothing we do matters.

Dear friend,

I have a war raging within me. The two sides are:

  1. Outcomes matter. If you want fans, win games.
  2. Process matters. How we work dictates the outcomes we’ll generate.

Support for “outcomes matter”:

  1. Our society celebrates winners.
  2. Reality is determined by the senses— we can see and touch and taste things.

Support for “process matters”:

  1. The Score Takes Care Of Itself: If you work in “the right way” you’ll generate successful outcomes… in perpetuity.
  2. Pale Blue Dot: If you were to pick up the Earth, the size of a billiard ball, even with all the deep water trenches and mountains, you would barely be able to feel any deviation in the surface (p. 153). We are sacks of meat floating through space on a rock. Nothing we do here will last a particularly long time.
  3. Meditations: The world will move on. Everything you’ve done will turn to dust.
  4. What’s in a legacy? No one will remember if you shipped Feature A or Feature B, and if they do they won’t particularly care. What folks will remember is if they were supported. If they were treated well, or poorly. If they felt respected and received patience and grace.

As I said, the war rages on. I have to remember The Rule of Three. If I only see two ways to solve the problem it means I don’t understand the problem space well enough to move forward effectively.

Something is not right in my work life. I ought to feel lifted, like we’re winning. But perhaps this is further evidence that winning isn’t everything.

I have to investigate where my lack of patience is coming from and take the simple wins where I can find them. State expectations clearly and then measure outputs fairly against those expectations.

I’m trying to convince myself that process matters and that working in the right way is enough, but man … I want to win!

So, here’s the current experiment:

Truly commit to these four principles at work, clearly articulate them and see what happens.

  1. Listen to our customers (to feed our work pipeline).
  2. Visualize our work transparently (so we don’t waste time syncing).
  3. Limit our work-in-progress (so that we can inform investment decisions with forecasts of where we might be and when)
  4. Listen to our customers (to update our work pipeline).

As I move forward here I will keep in mind that everything we do will turn to dust. We might as well build something cool together while we’re here.

It isn’t lost on me that the biggest problem in my life right now is a lack of fulfillment at work. That’s a pretty great place to be.

Yours,

JT