Maxims

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.
- EF Schumacher

This is a collection of maxims and observations on life which have been harvested from my previous blog. They are mostly based on experiences from working as an ever more cynical IT contractor over the last 10 years.

Maxims

1. Assumption is the mother of all f*ckups.
2. The Company will only listen if it has paid to hear it.
3. Expect the worst, you won’t be disappointed and occasionally you can be pleasantly surprised.
4. The solution for most organizations technical problems comprise of 10% technical 90% politics.
5. Patience is a virtue, so is impatience.
6. There are no big problems, just combinatorial explosions of small ones.
7. There are three spheres of operation, personal, professional and political. Decisions made in one sphere should be isolated from the other two. If you allow one sphere to influence another then you make mistakes.
8. Specialization is for Insects.
   (Plagiarized un-ashamedly from Robert Heinlein. The problem with specialists in any given field is that they tend to see all problems in light of their own solutions. It is precisely for this reason that the medical profession developed the role of the General Practitioner. Other disciplines would do well to learn from this model.)
9. There are only two reasons why change is resisted, either the system is already a finely tuned machine or the system is a house of cards ready to fall over if any one breathes near it.
   Most people like to think they are in the first category. Most people are actually in the second.

Three Common Errors

In all the jobs that I have been doing I keep seeing the same simple mistakes being made.

1) Over-complicating the problem.
2) Not utilizing the tools available effectively.
3) Over-complicating the solution.

If you simplify the problem space and utilize the tools effectively you can achieve a far simpler solution. You stop needing to write code that re-invents the wheel because you leverage on the facilities already there.

Unfortunately I think that organizations don’t want to do any of these things because complicated problems make people feel more important. Complicated solutions cost more money and keep people in jobs by needing constant hand-holding. Not fully utilizing the tools you have also results in more tools being purchased to fill the perceived functionality gap. This increases complexity again and adds to the nice self-important feeling.

I suppose it’s not all bad. It keeps me in a Job.