Becoming.
Flour and water and salt turn into bread when you work them properly and apply heat. The dough becomes the bread. It's an amazing process.
Simple ingredients. Simple procedures. Predictable chemistry. Edible food. What happens to the bread after it enters the body is a whole other set of amazing processes, but not where I'm going with this.
As a species, we figured out bread. As an individual, I've yet to jump on the Sourdough Bandwagon, but my sister did and she was handing out loaves a plenty. She applied some work to simple ingredients and worked through the learning curve. Now, she can deliver a loaf she's proud of. Isn't that all we really want — to be proud of ourselves for having learned something and put in a good effort? For me, that's all I need.
Ship The Work is my latest project. It's been a week and the work is starting to come together. The realization I'm coming to again on this Friday night is that products aren't created in a few hours. It takes time and ingredients and the chemistry of human interaction.
By mixing ideas and effort and feedback with the heat of trial and error, a product can be prototyped, used, and refined. It's not a single-step process. The takeaway is simple. Mix the ingredients, put under the heat of scrutiny, and see what you come up with. Adjust the ingredients and the heat and the time as necessary until you get a result you can be proud of.
Along the way, you'll make mistakes; you'll fail; you'll learn. Today I learned that if I promise to ship on a deadline, and fail, at least I have something to write about.
Flour and water and salt turn into bread when you work them properly and apply heat. The dough becomes the bread. It's an amazing process.
Simple ingredients. Simple procedures. Predictable chemistry. Edible food. What happens to the bread after it enters the body is a whole other set of amazing processes, but not where I'm going with this.
As a species, we figured out bread. As an individual, I've yet to jump on the Sourdough Bandwagon, but my sister did and she was handing out loaves a plenty. She applied some work to simple ingredients and worked through the learning curve. Now, she can deliver a loaf she's proud of. Isn't that all we really want — to be proud of ourselves for having learned something and put in a good effort? For me, that's all I need.
Ship The Work is my latest project. It's been a week and the work is starting to come together. The realization I'm coming to again on this Friday night is that products aren't created in a few hours. It takes time and ingredients and the chemistry of human interaction.
By mixing ideas and effort and feedback with the heat of trial and error, a product can be prototyped, used, and refined. It's not a single-step process. The takeaway is simple. Mix the ingredients, put under the heat of scrutiny, and see what you come up with. Adjust the ingredients and the heat and the time as necessary until you get a result you can be proud of.
Along the way, you'll make mistakes; you'll fail; you'll learn. Today I learned that if I promise to ship on a deadline, and fail, at least I have something to write about.
