As a kid I always thought it was stupid that the Death Star could be destroyed by two well aimed protons. How could something so powerful be destroyed by such low firepower? I loved Star Wars too much to let that get in the way of my enjoyment though.
Recently I've come to realize that all complex systems eventually get these soft spots. Progress means specialization and specialization means increasing surface areas of vulnerability.
This is why I find skulls beautiful. As we evolved the creatures that indexed heavily on protecting their brain are the ones who survived. We no longer are anthropods with our skeletal system on the outside of our entire bodies. That would be too expensive. Instead the course of nature decided to put such a defensive system in one place. The brain.
When it comes to living and working in a dynamic world. We can't be invulnerable in everything. There's a surface area we can't possibly cover 100%. So what sets apart the operators from the rest of us are how effectively you choose which parts to keep rigid and which parts to keep soft.
Basecamp likes to keep the boundaries rigid. As in their executives like Jason Fried like to define the outerscope of what a project sprint should achieve. Maybe it is in six weeks this project should allow users to send emails to other users (marked as sent from their personal email) but from within Basecamp's UI.
After this clear outer boundary is specified, Jason allows the implementors -- usually 2 programmers and 1 designer -- to have full soft discretion on how it's implemented. Jason doesn't manage implementation at the pixel or even copy level. That's up to them.
This contrasts the usual approach of executives allowing the outer boundary to be flexible while managing at the scope of details. What this entails is a manager who is constantly calling meetings where people discuss pixels and words. What this also usually entails is the manager constantly moving the outer boundary's fence. As in a project might begin as
At the end of this six weeks, users should be able to send direct messages to other users.
to two weeks in.
At the end of this sprint that ends in four weeks, users should be able to send videos within these direct messages and mention other users using @
to next week
At the end of this spring that now only has three weeks left, we should have a dashboard that shows all these direct messages being sent.
Recently I've come to realize that all complex systems eventually get these soft spots. Progress means specialization and specialization means increasing surface areas of vulnerability.
This is why I find skulls beautiful. As we evolved the creatures that indexed heavily on protecting their brain are the ones who survived. We no longer are anthropods with our skeletal system on the outside of our entire bodies. That would be too expensive. Instead the course of nature decided to put such a defensive system in one place. The brain.
When it comes to living and working in a dynamic world. We can't be invulnerable in everything. There's a surface area we can't possibly cover 100%. So what sets apart the operators from the rest of us are how effectively you choose which parts to keep rigid and which parts to keep soft.
Basecamp likes to keep the boundaries rigid. As in their executives like Jason Fried like to define the outerscope of what a project sprint should achieve. Maybe it is in six weeks this project should allow users to send emails to other users (marked as sent from their personal email) but from within Basecamp's UI.
After this clear outer boundary is specified, Jason allows the implementors -- usually 2 programmers and 1 designer -- to have full soft discretion on how it's implemented. Jason doesn't manage implementation at the pixel or even copy level. That's up to them.
This contrasts the usual approach of executives allowing the outer boundary to be flexible while managing at the scope of details. What this entails is a manager who is constantly calling meetings where people discuss pixels and words. What this also usually entails is the manager constantly moving the outer boundary's fence. As in a project might begin as
At the end of this six weeks, users should be able to send direct messages to other users.
to two weeks in.
At the end of this sprint that ends in four weeks, users should be able to send videos within these direct messages and mention other users using @
to next week
At the end of this spring that now only has three weeks left, we should have a dashboard that shows all these direct messages being sent.
Soft Core + Rigid Exterior vs Rigid Core vs Soft Exterior
I might have buried the lead on this one. lol.
Basecamp's head or product beautifully articulates this in his ebook https://basecamp.com/shapeup
therealbrandonwilson
