Hold your own Poison Ivy
After two years, this week I finally caved and changed my current employment title on LinkedIn from Software Engineer to Software Architect.
This isn’t a position where I'm am supposed to do much programming - the thing I love most, and the thing I'm good at - but rather make high-level technical decision and manage people to achieve them. My problem with that, and any position like that, is best captured in the Croatian proverb "It's easy to hold poison Ivy in somebody else's hands" (that's the SFW Americanized version, here's the NSFW original).
That proverb describes a decision made by someone who isn't involved in the execution of the decision, and doesn't suffer its consequences.
I don't want to be the kind of person who just lobs some solution over the wall and lets other people deal with the fallout.
I’ve had "managers" like that in the past, and it was hell working with them. Being told to do something that you know will cause problems, then bringing that up for discussion, explaining all the implications and new problems we will face, only to be shutdown with some hand-wavy explanation, and then having to deal with the consequences of that decision months or even years later is soul crushing. And if they can’t admit to their mistakes it can become burnout inducing.
And I know that engineering isn't really about solving problems as much as it’s about displacing them. We are constantly trading one problem for one or more other problems. But we try to do so conscientiously, weight the pros and the cons, and pick a solution that produces problems that we can live with.
The problem with Software Architects, or any purely managerial position, is that you aren't eating your own dog food, and therefore you don't live with the consequences of your decisions. So you produce misfit solutions.
This isn’t a position where I'm am supposed to do much programming - the thing I love most, and the thing I'm good at - but rather make high-level technical decision and manage people to achieve them. My problem with that, and any position like that, is best captured in the Croatian proverb "It's easy to hold poison Ivy in somebody else's hands" (that's the SFW Americanized version, here's the NSFW original).
That proverb describes a decision made by someone who isn't involved in the execution of the decision, and doesn't suffer its consequences.
I don't want to be the kind of person who just lobs some solution over the wall and lets other people deal with the fallout.
I’ve had "managers" like that in the past, and it was hell working with them. Being told to do something that you know will cause problems, then bringing that up for discussion, explaining all the implications and new problems we will face, only to be shutdown with some hand-wavy explanation, and then having to deal with the consequences of that decision months or even years later is soul crushing. And if they can’t admit to their mistakes it can become burnout inducing.
And I know that engineering isn't really about solving problems as much as it’s about displacing them. We are constantly trading one problem for one or more other problems. But we try to do so conscientiously, weight the pros and the cons, and pick a solution that produces problems that we can live with.
The problem with Software Architects, or any purely managerial position, is that you aren't eating your own dog food, and therefore you don't live with the consequences of your decisions. So you produce misfit solutions.
The problem of displacement is compounded by the existence of designers—special people whose job it is to solve problems, in advance, for other people. Designers, like landlords, seldom if ever experience the consequences of their actions. In consequence, designers continually produce misfits. A misfit is a solution that produces a mismatch with the human beings who have to live with the solution. Some mismatches are downright dangerous.
— Donald C. Gause, Gerald M. Weinberg in Are Your Lights On?: How to Figure Out What the Problem Really Is
After two years, I’m confident that I’ve managed to avoid becoming that kind of “manager” by holding my own poison Ivy, and by helping others make decisions for themselves.
When I'm presented with a problem, I try to implement a proof of concept solution my self. Not a demo, held up with glue and duct tape; but a proper minimal implementation. Then I present the solution to my coworkers and gather feedback. That way I can feel the consequences of my solutions.
When someone comes to me with a problem, we go over all the possible solutions that we can come up with, then we discuss the pros and cons, and that's it. I let person decide for themselves which solution they will go with. All I ask of them is to tell me which one they chose. The point is to shine some light on problems that the person maybe couldn't see on their own, and point out some bigger-picture things that they might not know about. That way they can make an informed decision and choose the solution with which they can live with - so there aren't any misfit solutions.
This isn't a silver bullet by any means. Bad decisions still get made, I fuck up, my coworkers fuck up. But we learn, fix stuff, build trust, and improve.
When I'm presented with a problem, I try to implement a proof of concept solution my self. Not a demo, held up with glue and duct tape; but a proper minimal implementation. Then I present the solution to my coworkers and gather feedback. That way I can feel the consequences of my solutions.
When someone comes to me with a problem, we go over all the possible solutions that we can come up with, then we discuss the pros and cons, and that's it. I let person decide for themselves which solution they will go with. All I ask of them is to tell me which one they chose. The point is to shine some light on problems that the person maybe couldn't see on their own, and point out some bigger-picture things that they might not know about. That way they can make an informed decision and choose the solution with which they can live with - so there aren't any misfit solutions.
This isn't a silver bullet by any means. Bad decisions still get made, I fuck up, my coworkers fuck up. But we learn, fix stuff, build trust, and improve.