Building Stuff Is Hard

Virtually every veteran builder that you talk to; tells you the same things about building remarkable stuff. Building stuff is hard; building stuff takes time; building anything means you face a lot of criticism and building stuff requires something that is much more important than just raw talent --- it requires patience and consistency.

Bottom line; you keep jabbing; keep shipping; and keep firing; till the time you cross the dip and hop over the thin line that separates a young and budding armature from a mature veteran.

If building stuff that is truly remarkable is that hard and usually happens after multiple encounters with failure; the question that really kept bothering me; as I worked on this book; dear reader; was that; apart from the Hollywood-Appeal-Factor is there anything else that attracts, nudges and pushes genuine builders around the world to keep building stuff.

The answer as it turns out is --- passion and flow.

Flow

The more builders around the world; I observe; the more I am leaning to believe that passion for what you do and flow are two most important reasons which makes builders put in the tremendous amount of patience, slogging and consistency it takes to make the dents in the universe; that they are trying to make in the first place. 

Wikipedia defines being in the flow as:

The mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.

Csíkszentmihályi identifies the following nine factors as accompanying an experience of flow:

1. Clear goals (expectations and rules are discernible and goals are attainable and align appropriately with one's skill set and abilities). Moreover, the challenge level and skill level should both be high.
2. Concentrating and focusing, a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention (a person engaged in the activity will have the opportunity to focus and to delve deeply into it).
3. A loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, the merging of action and awareness.
4. Distorted sense of time, one's subjective experience of time is altered.
5. Direct and immediate feedback (successes and failures in the course of the activity are apparent, so that behavior can be adjusted as needed).
6. Balance between ability level and challenge (the activity is neither too easy nor too difficult).
7. A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.
8. The activity is intrinsically rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action.
9. People become absorbed in their activity, and focus of awareness is narrowed down to the activity itself, action awareness merging.

Not all are needed for flow to be experienced.

The software development world as I know it; dear reader; is composed to only two kinds of human beings --- first kind includes one who have experienced the feeling of being in the flow; other includes those who have not.

If you work with me, know me or read this blog regularly, you may have heard or read me describe my first encounter with my first desktop as - love at first sight with no looking back since then.

During those days; picking up a random problem like creating a shooting game with quick-basic and spending hours at it; day after day; without having the need to concern myself with mundane details regarding like if I was going to paid for what was being built; was a relatively easy way to truly enjoy the journey of building stuff and experiencing flow --- without even knowing what flow was.

Then it disappeared as I tried to 'grow up' as a programmer.

It took more than ten years of programming to get a little bit of that same childishness back into my life and to brush against experiencing flow once again.

Today; as someone who toils and labors with his insanely mulish attempts at writing code; posts or anything that is supposed to make really small dents in my very own little universe; dear reader; even I; dear reader; have brushed against the feeling of being in the flow more than once.

If you have; too; dear reader; you know exactly why it makes builders around the world keep craving for more.

If you have not; chances are; that; if keep doing what you absolutely love doing; you will and when you do; you will know exactly what it is all about.

After you have experienced what it feels like to be in the flow for a few times; there is very little you can do; other than fall in love with what you do and continue doing it; day after day.

What are you experiences with getting in the flow?

Does being in the flow frequently make your overall life much more productive and happier?

Do you actually crave the experience every time sit in front of a monitor; dear reader?

Discuss.

Note: This article is a part of a Work In Progress Book. To Read connected articles read the Builders At Work category of this blog.

Sixteen Captains

Back in my school-days our school had figured out a brilliant plan to keep every student motivated and build an environment where none of us would create a ruckus. The secret to doing this; as it turns out; was --- badges.

The idea was a simple three step approach:

1. Break the class into groups of 10 to 12 students.
2. Call these groups 'houses'.
3. Make two 'captains' and two vice captains for each house.

If you were talking about a class of thirty students; you were talking of two class captains; two class vice captains; and then there were twelve captains and vice-captains at the house level. Put simply; if you were discussing a class of thirty students you were talking around about sixteen guys who were 'in-charge' of maintaining the discipline. If you did not happen to be in this sixteen; chances were; that you were way too dumb to create a ruckus or make trouble anyways.

As funny as this might sound to you; there were win-win elements attached to this arrangement:

The school loved this arrangement because the smartest, craziest, wildest, funniest, loudest trouble-makers; who make dents in the universe and challenge the status quo; after they leave school; would tow the line and would be spending most of their time getting others in the line till they were in school.

The trouble makers loved it because it gave them a head start at introduction with girls at interschool functions.

Look Around.

Before you snicker at the stupidity of the whole arrangement above or wonder how it would ever work; look around your organization and you will figure out exactly how such a funny sounding stupid arrangement works; not just with young immature teenagers; but even with grown up programmers. 

How many "Team leaders" does your organization have?

How many "Module Leaders"?

Vice Presidents?

Directors?

David at 37Signals describes this much more articulately that I will ever be able to describe it. He explains:

The title of vice president must be the most promiscuous of all in corporate America. Everyone seems to be a vice president these days. Some companies having hundreds of them. Are all of these people truly capable of standing in for the president or CEO of the company should it come to that? Are they really just one step below that person?

Of course they’re not. Vice president is mostly an “all title, no lands” concept that serves as a cheap way to make someone feel important without the authority to actually be important. It’s classic over-promise, under-deliver. “You’re oh-so-important, but please fill out this expense authorization report for your laptop”.

Titles are mostly bullshit at the best of times, but “vice president” seems to be bullshit all the time.

Now; go look around how and count how many simple 'engineers' you have in your organization.

Compare that number with all the number of people holding other fancy designations your organization might have.

You might be able to figure out how my school pulled off their funny little gimmick of getting the trouble makers to tow the line.

And Why Do Most Builders Take The Bait And Get Excited?

In my career --- I have been fortunate enough to be able to give promotion letters to quite a few genuine builders. I've seen engineers get promoted from engineers to technical architects; and every time I hand over the promotion letters I see a genuine smile on people's face.

This; dear reader; confused me for months.

For months; I would look at every builder smile when he was promoted; and I would look at them with a blank; confused look.

For months I wondered if every single builder; getting happy at being made fiftieth 'senior' executive in the organization of hundred employees; was an idiot to have taken the fish bait and get all excited?

The answer; dear reader; as it turns out --- is obviously not.

Remember the head-start-with-the-girls-at-interschool-functions part?

That (or something on the same lines) is exactly what is at play here.

Handling Designations

Flashy new designation does not 'exactly' give software developers a head start at conversations with girls at a pub; but it gets them more 'perceived-respect'  and a chance at being heard within the organization.

If you have been with me so far; chances are; that I've sold; two simple facts to you:

First; There are tons of useless designations out there; even in your very own organization.

Second; Irrespective of whether you are a builder or a whiner; chances are that you are going to feel a funny pinch of happiness when you are given one of these funny sounding designation.

What you do with this shinning flashy designation of yours; after that funny pinch of happiness wears out; eventually ends up deciding whether you continue to be the competent builder you currently are or you get yourself promoted to your level of incompetence.

Go ahead.

Reflect.

Are you continuing to be in touch with code or have you decided to turn around and run as far away from it at the first fancy designation you are given?

Do you continue to see the uselessness of the meetings you are now expected to attend?

Are you using your newly acquired title to bring about some positive change within the organization or at-least within your team?

Do you realize what your secret title really is?

And most importantly; do you realize that you are just one of the sixteen captains in a classroom of thirty students?

If you responded with a very confident 'yes' to all of the above questions; you should be just fine with your next flashy promotion.

Go ahead; accept it.

Then; go be the student who is ok accepting with the batch of a vice-captain; and then decides that he wants to continue being the smart, crazy, wild, funny, loud trouble-maker who makes a ruckus anyways.

I wish you good luck.

Note: This article is a part of a Work In Progress Book. To Read connected articles read the Builders At Work category of this blog.

The Ideas

At any point of time; in Multiplitaxion Inc; we had multiple teams working on a host of ideas that the business had. Ideas ranging from Accounting for oil-and-gas companies to complex 3D modeling.

Like any other company with a good engineering culture the builders played with tools and technologies. Every now and then they would throw out a sprint based on the a business idea; would pat themselves on their back at a job well done and would go have a blast at a party.

We were one happy team of geeks and builders; getting things done and partying after every deliverable went out the door.

But; there was something missing.

The whole pleasure of creating meaning and making dents in the universe wasn't quite there.

The Pain

Do you feel it?

Do you have an arch enemy?

Do you have a Problem that is a part of your very own personal life that you want to personally eradicate from the surface of planet earth?

Steve Yegge describes this phenomenon when talking about why Business Requirements Are Bullshit. He explains:

You can look at any phenomenally successful company, and it's pretty obvious that their success was founded on building on something they personally wanted. The extent that any company begins to deviate from this course is the extent to which their ship starts taking on water.

And the key leading indicator that they're getting ready to head off course? You guessed it: it's when they start talking about gathering business requirements.

Because, dude, face it: if it's something you want, then you already know what the requirements are. You don't need to "gather" them. You think about it all the time. You can list the requirements from memory. And usually it's pretty simple.

From Krishna Bharat designing Google News to keep himself abrest of the news after the September 11 aftermath to the folks at 37Signals working on project path; most things that make dents in the universe are 'not' things where a marketing vice president sits down with his team to brainstorm about some fresh new ideas. They are problems --- craving to be solved; in the life of a genuine builder who has the means and the measures to solve it.

Problems that the builders passionately connect to; problems that builders understand; problems that are problems in the life of the builders who are working on solving them. Problems that the team passionately wants to eradicate from the surface of planet earth.

If you are a consulting firm; chances are you are knitting your brow and going --- 'But Pops. We have to work on projects from multiple verticals. It's our bread and butter' --- and my answer is simple --- 'by all means; please do; but at the same time see to it that you are giving your builders enough free time to solve problems that they genuinely want to solve'.

The next time a builder walks up to you with a problem he has and how he plans on going about solving it; go out for a cup of coffee with him and listen closely --- then question if the problem is a genuine problem that will stand the test of time and is a problem worth solving.

If it is a problem worth solving; let your builders take a shot at it.

Chances are; that they might waste a few days at it and nothing might come out of it; or chances are you might have a life changing product in the making right there; but if you never take the chance and never trust your builders; you will never figure out.

There is only one way to find out --- let your builders take a stab at it --- I wish you good luck.

Note: This article is a part of a Work In Progress Book. To Read connected articles read the Builders At Work category of this blog.

Builders, Organizations And Stuff That Changes Things.

Genuine Builders embrace change. They are just as afraid of change as anyone else; but then they indulge in the act of building stuff that makes small and big dents in the universe. They indulge in the act of building stuff that changes things. Hire a couple of genuine builders; let them be your seed engineers and chances are; they will attempt to change just about anything that seems 'safe' in your organization.

Organizations; as it turns out; are often not very comfortable with these sort of huge changes or ideas that bring about these sort of changes.

Scott Berkun describes this with the help of; what he calls; a 'bad illustration'.

Scott explains:

The arrows are the paths of different ideas. The box in the middle is the organization.

Whenever leaders want more innovation, they typically start by adding more inputs into the process. They seek out more ideas. Hey, lets brainstorm! Or maybe we should crowdsource! Or how about getting everyone to mindmap!

Executives often do this flinchy sort of thing and it’s big news at many corporations to start “idea programs” to encourage people to submit ideas.

These programs are launched, ideas are submitted, and there is much rejoicing.

But little change.

The reason there is little change is that idea inputs were never the problem. The bottleneck was further upstream. Crowdsourcing, brainstorming, mindmapping, and the dozens of other techniques people obsess about help create early idea volume, but do little to help the curators, the people who winnow down the hundreds of ideas down to dozens, and dozens down to a handful.

It’s much more useful to study where the bottlenecks are, when and why new ideas are killed, and who the people are that are killing them.

When it comes to the software development shops around the world; I've seen countless new ideas by genuine builders; sometimes; even the ideas which are capable of standing the test of time; being killed faster than they are born.

As a builder; when you introduce an idea or build stuff that is supposed to make a small or big dent in the universe; you dear reader; are trying to bring about change; which; as it turns out; is not something that is easy to bring about; at-least not in most organizations.

DeMarco and Lester describe this in their book Peopleware while explaining the 'Resistance To Change Continuum' and how it works. According to 'Resistance To Change Continuum'  your organization can be composed of the following types of individuals.

The 'Blindly Loyal' kind will not force your ideas to go through a 'reality check' and will result colossal life-changing fu@#kups. Every other kind from passive observers to 'militantly opposed' are just equally dangerous when it comes trying to bring about change.

In the above list; the only kind that help bring about change in your organization are the 'skeptics' --- your fellow builders or story-tellers who look up to your; look after you; look at you and have the courage and the spine to tell you where you are going wrong.

Depending on where you work; chances are that more than once; you are bound to see situations in your career; where the ratio of every other kind compared to genuine skeptics is relatively high. Depending on where you work; you are bound to see ideas; even the ones that would have otherwise stood the test of time; die a miserable death in meeting rooms.

Look around you.

Does your organization have skeptics who challenge your ideas in a healthy way or do you often find yourself presenting your ideas to people of every other kind in the 'Resistance To Change Continuum'?

If you are stuck with an organization where the later is true:

1. Let your ideas stand the test of time.
2. Run them through a few genuine builders or skeptics you might know and trust.
3. Throw them out there and let them spread.

Then; if you find your ideas spread and survive; get your partners in crime to join in; and try out implementing these ideas --- in your garage.

Till you can get your organization to 'see it' and 'get it' --- that is where most ideas will have to turn into prototypes and then take the shape of real products.

Unless you work at an organization which embraces change; that; dear reader; might be your only chance to bring about change.

I wish you good luck.

Note: This article is a part of a Work In Progress Book. To Read connected articles read the Builders At Work category of this blog.

Partners In Crime.

I am at Jack's organization. Jack is showing me around. The vending machine; the cabins and the laptops.

I can sense where this is going.

It is almost like I am looking at an x-ray copy of his brain that shows me what he is thinking.

I can sense it coming --- and then it happens.

The question:

'Hey Pops --- I think you will like it here. Want to work with us?'

I respond with a grin:

'Not now. By the way; we have an interesting office too; you want to work with us?'

It has been five years since we worked together on a project. Three years since we talked and yet; we talk like we had a fight over a design approach; followed by a long discussion about life in the software development world; yesterday.

We find no need to setup new communication channels for small-talk after three years of zero-conversation.

The channels we established years ago are still open.

The only thing both of us can think of when we meet is trying to get the each other on our team. We are actively attracting each other into our own workplace.

The more I observe builders and story tellers across organizations interacting with each other in conferences; code camps; and even seminars; the more I tend to develop a deeper understand of the reasons why builders who have worked together in the past have a tendency to attract each other.

The Reasons

It is clearly not a conscious stream of thought that a builder is particularly aware of; but when a builder makes an attempt to pull another builder into his team; his mind in indulging in fairly complex reasoning. If you have worked with a genuine builder in one of your past projects; you meet him at the grocery and you feel the need to give him a job offer at your current team or your current organization it might be because of one or more of the following reasons:

Builders Look Up To Each Other

This is very different from saying I-respect-someone-because-of-his-ability-to-learn or I-respect-someone-because-he-is-a-friend-of-mine. This is admitting; blatantly and openly that I-respect-someone-because-that-someone-is-better-than-me.

You look up to that someone because he is better than you; and here is the strange part --- that someone looks up to you because he genuinely believes you are  better than him.

As funny as this sounds; I've seen quite a few teams of genuine builders around the world and if there is one thing that binds them it is this level of genuine competence-based-respect for each other.

Builders Look After Each Other

Software development is no different than being on the battle-field and being attacked by enemies from multiple fronts. Genuine builders know the importance of having allies and they also understand the importance of having other capable builders; who can give them cover fire.

I've seen quite a few teams of genuine builders complement each other; get each other out of fire; and being genuine partners in crime.

It is the looking-up-to-each-other that often results in looking after each other.

Builders Look At Each Other

I am f@#ucking up. I want someone with enough courage; spine and lack of respect for mitigated speech to look at me in the eye and tell me that the project is screwed if I don't get my act together.

I do the same for others around me.

Put two builders in a team and you will see difference of opinions; arguments and sometimes even fights. When a genuine builder looks you in the eye and tells you how much your code sucks; you know that in a world where no-one cares about you; he cared enough to look at what you were doing wrong.

It is the looking-after-each-other that often results in looking at each-other.

Look around you; try to think of all the people you have worked with in the past.

How many of them were genuine builders?

How many of them met the three scenarios above when it comes to your professional life?

Chances are; you will be able to think of a selected few individuals; these are your partners in crime.

If they are not working with you; hunt them down and then offer them a job in your team or your organization.

I wish you good luck.

Note: This article is a part of a Work In Progress Book. To Read connected articles read the Builders At Work category of this blog.

Roots

My first few months at Multiplitaxion Inc were depressing. I was being assigned to every random assignment; ranging from document formatting to reverse engineering. I was working for peanuts; on assignments that no-one else would work on and I was literally slogging.

Floating in the email trails of the organizational mailing list were emails from a genuine builder which would cheer me up. Every once in a while with no reference to the context a message would land up in my mailbox that would have an inspirational proverb:

When the work you do is low and the rewards are few. Remember that the mighty Oak was once a nut like you.

At other times when you received no promotion after a year full of slogging and three successful projects; things would get a little frustrating.

There were moments when I would genuinely wonder if I was wasting my time with an organization that would never be able to understand and utilize my core competencies.

What the 'nerd' in me was doing in difficult times like this can be best described an interesting anecdote one of managers back then told me:

The Olive tree is fairly interesting. For months after planting it you hardly see anything growing. You feel like its growth is slower than practically any other tree out there.

Then something happens --- The tree shoots and grows faster than any other tree.

What the Olive tree is doing during the period of its seemingly slow growth is simple --- it is developing deeper roots that will help it grow really fast when it starts to shoot up.

Besides moving from one task to another without complaining out loud --- An act that was slowly starting to turn me into a one-man-army --- what was also happening in my life during those difficult times was that I was developing deeper organizational roots.

Today; as I observe young but genuine builders-in-the-making function within multiple organizations and grow; the whole idea of continuing to 'show up' consistently and developing deeper roots seems like well formed approach most builders take during their incubation period.

While whiners around the world continue to loop in the infinite loop of failure genuine builders make dents in the universe by settling down; developing deeper roots within the culture chart of the organization and then brining about change.

Seed Engineers In The Making

Jack is a young and budding engineer giving hours of hard work. He is smart and is always up to something interesting. A little rebellious; a little unhappy --- but never whining; Jack continues to show up day after day; adapt and constantly strive to bring about change.

Make him work with an asshole sitting higher up in the pecking order of the organization and Jack will morph and hibernate.

Then; when its safe; Jack with attempt to bring about change again.

Observe Jack closely --- because Jack is your seed engineer.

Work hard to give newer challenges to him; pair him up with a couple of genuine builders so that he blossoms well over time.

Put simply; give him an environment where does not lose his x-factor over time and emerges to be your seed engineer for tomorrow.

I wish you good luck.

Note: This article is a part of a Work In Progress Book. To Read connected articles read the Builders At Work category of this blog.

If You Can Have Only One Thing.

If you have been reading my advice on building remarkable work and play environments you may have noticed that I have gone all out and have strongly pushed on a lot of different ideas; ranging from hiring all the way to the importance giving out logo-wear.

As I wrote these articles; one question kept coming back --- If there was just one thing that you could do towards building a remarkable work and play environment; when you were starting your organization; what would that one thing be.

The answer; after a lot of soul-searching; observation and research; as it turns out is --- seeds.

Your environment; work-culture; your organizational growth and even the very existence of your team or organization is going to depend on how well are you able to seed it.

What I am talking about here; dear reader; is the selected few you hire to act as 'seed engineers' for your organization.

While I have already talked about the importance of hiring when it comes to building amazing work and play environments; nothing beats the importance of hiring your seed engineers.

Who your seed engineers are will eventually make or break your organization.   

Seed Engineers

Your seed engineers are the people who you look at as the 'core' team within your organization. People who don't just build stuff --- but to a large aspect determine both; the engineering culture and culture chart of your team or your organization.

You quite literally think of them as the seed that is going to define both the 'growth' and the 'character' of your organization.

Seed your organization with a bunch of whiners and chances are high that before you know if your organization would be swamped with whiners and moaners. Seed it with some seriously kick-ass engineers and chances are that you will have an environment full of amazing builders. An environment which actually makes the whiners very  nervous and keeps them out.

The real question; dear reader; is how do you hire seriously kick-ass seed engineers.

The answer; when is comes to hiring; is that you begin by being --- ruthless.

Hiring Seeds And Raw Talent.

Steve Yegge demonstrates a decent bit of this same ruthlessness when he talks about hiring seed engineers in any organization. He explains:

Let me ask you a brutally honest question: since you began interviewing, how many of the engineers you've voted thumbs-up on (i.e. "hire!"), are engineers you'd personally hire to work with you in your first startup company? Let's say this is a hypothetical company you're going to found someday when you have just a little more financial freedom and a great idea.

I posit that most of you, willing to admit it or not, have a lower bar for your current company than you would for your own personal startup company.

The people you'd want to be in your startup are not of the Smart and Gets Things Done variety.

For your startup (or, applying the recursion, for your new project at your current company), you don't want someone who's "smart". You're not looking for "eager to learn", "picks things up quickly", "proven track record of ramping up fast".

No! Screw that. You want someone who's superhumanly godlike. Someone who can teach you a bunch of stuff. Someone you admire and wish you could emulate, not someone who you think will admire and emulate you.

You want someone who, when you give them a project to research, will come in on Monday and say: "I'm Done, and by the way I improved the existing infrastructure while I was at it."

I am sure a young and budding entrepreneur or manager out there is knitting your brows at Steve's advice and getting all sentimental about the importance of 'niceness' and 'willingness to learn' as he reads this.

Am I; dear reader; suggesting that you take every smart; young and raw talent that walks into your interview room and boot him out of there?

Of-course not.

Go ahead and recruit young raw talent who can act as your seed engineers tomorrow but at the same time; realize the importance of hiring your seed engineers for today.

Without a few really strong seed engineers; chances are that the raw talent you hire; is going to lose their x-factor faster than you think.

Remember; having people who are smarter than you; and people who you genuinely admire; on your team; is much more important that having people; who you think admire you.

Now; go out there are hire people who are much more talented than you are; smarter than you are; faster than you are; have stronger opinions than you do and an ever stronger spine to express them.

Put simply; if there is one thing you are going to do to try and build genuinely interesting work and play environments; go out there and hire 'seed engineers' who are smarter; faster and much more talented than you --- people you genuinely admire --- and once you have done that; let these set of genuine builders and story-tellers seed your environment to make it truly remarkable.

I wish you good luck.

Note: This article is a part of a Work In Progress Book. To Read connected articles read the Builders At Work category of this blog.

Myth: Builders Are Not Good At Communicating With People.

During my early days as a young and budding developer; I was an introvert.

As I grew up and started observing others developers around me; I started seeing more and more developers; some of them who were even veteran heavy-weigh programming champions; being labeled as introverts who basically keep to themselves.

As developers quite a few of us have been or are labeled as 'shy' --- 'introvert' --- and 'quite'.  In general; we seem to have an image of pesky programmers who are not very good with people.

I dear reader; am here to tell you that; the whole notion of builders not being very good at communication is one of the biggest myths in the world of software development.

So; during my young and budding days as a developer; I was an introvert.Then somewhere along the line; I developed a keen interest in understanding how the human brain and humans beings in general; work. I got interested in management and entrepreneurship. Because of my interest in these topics the scope of conversations I liked involving myself in; increased and I could suddenly strike comfortable conversations with clients and managers.

It was at this point that I realized that I was never an introvert.

The problem with me was never not-being-good-at-communication or not-being-very-outgoing. The problem with me; like most software developers was that I; like most nerds was just not into small talk.

Michael Lopp in his nerd handbook describes this exact same phenomenon:

Your nerd might come off as not liking people. Small talk. Those first awkward five minutes when two people are forced to interact. Small talk is the bane of the nerd’s existence because small talk is a combination of aspects of the world that your nerd hates.

When your nerd is staring at a stranger, all he’s thinking is, “I have no system for understanding this messy person in front of me”. This is where the shy comes from. This is why nerds hate presenting to crowds. The skills to interact with other people are there. They just lack a well-defined system.

In the same article; Michael describes why Nerds are not truly the introverts they are presented to be. He explains:

People are the most interesting content out there. If you’ve got a seriously shy nerd on your hands, try this: ask him how many folks are in his buddy list? How many friends does he have in Facebook? How many folks are following him on Twitter? LiveJournal? My guess is that, collectively, your nerd interacts with ten times more people than you think he does. He can do this because the interaction is via a system he understands — the computer.

Your nerd knows that people are interesting. Just because he can’t look your best friend straight in the eye doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to know what makes her tick, but you need to be the social buffer — the translation layer. You need to find one common thread of interest between your nerd and your friend and then he’ll engage because he will have found relevance.

To be honest; it is not so much about the medium of communication being a well defined system as it is about the very basis of the conversation and small-talk. If you want to understand what I mean; go walk up to a genuine builder deeply submerged in his code and ask him how he was doing or what he thinks about the weather. Chances are the conversation will end even before it begins.

Now wait for a couple of days; and then walk up to the same builder seeking help with refactoring a function you are writing. Chances are; that not only will he fix your function; he will actually spend hours explaining to you why he made the changes he made. Drift the conversation towards whether now; and suddenly you will see this builder that you are talking to also has a strong opinion about whether.

The whole notion that builders are not good at communicating stuff back to the business or their managers is a notion full of a truck load of crap. When you are working with genuine builders what is really most important is the initial connection. Base it on a platform the builder feels at home with and you are in for a deep dive into the builder mind; and there is a lot going on in these minds.

Philosophies ranging from how to build better stuff; to how you should live a meaningful life and why you should do what you love doing or why you should give in a little bit extra. It is a gold mine of information; but the rules of getting in are simple --- you have to either be a genuine builder or at-least speak the language your genuine builders speak.

Every brain in your organization that belongs to a genuine builder is ticking and trying to communicate ---- constantly.

The real question is --- can you; communicate with your genuine builders; dear reader?

Discuss.

Note: This article is a part of a Work In Progress Book. To Read connected articles read the Builders At Work category of this blog.