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Passion

Nov 6, 08:33 AM

For a long time now I’ve had a habit of railing about “incompetence.” People who were “incompetent” made no sense to me. How could you consistently underperform at a task without improving? Last week, I realized I’ve been thinking about it entirely the wrong way. It’s not incompetence per se that upsets me, it’s carelessness. People who don’t care about things are completely inscrutable to me. How do you live if you don’t care? What gets you up in the morning if things don’t matter to you? Passion is what drives me day in and day out. Doesn’t it drive everybody?

I don’t think I’m alone in the software world when I say that. Most of the great developers I know are driven by passion, and when I asked on OnStartups Answers “What drives you?” a lot of people came back with passion. It seems to be a common theme, from Getting Real to education, that people who are passionate are more successful. My confusion of carelessness with incompetence wasn’t completely wrong: people who are passionate improve over time. People who aren’t can be comfortable staying at the same level of ability without significant improvement. Over time the two groups diverge, with the passionate people getting better and better.

I think software engineering runs the risk of losing the passionate people. What I love most about the Ruby community is its consistent theme of passion and experimentation. We have great characters like _why (or had him) and fun frameworks like Sinatra, where the web server tells you that “Sinatra has left the stage (applause).” Ruby people are clearly passionate about what they do, and that makes me feel like I’ve found my people. Passion drives me, and passionate people make sense to me. No wonder Ruby has so quickly become my favorite language to code in.

It’s hard to get passionate about something you’re no good at. Every time I’ve gone into a new field and tried to learn it, there’s a period I call bootstrapping. I know so little about the topic that I struggle even to figure out what I should be learning, much less actually learning it. It’s often not very fun, and I’m rarely that passionate about it. Getting over that hump, though, is so worth it. When you’re just starting out, you may not be passionate, but you’re not going to get there without caring.

Posted by Eric Allen
Filed in Engineering
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Tools vs. People

Oct 27, 01:47 PM

I’m in the process of re-starting the RPI Entrepreneurship Club over the next several months. Creating an organization is difficult, but I’ve come to understand there are two (and probably more) very different ways of going about it. One kind of leader focuses on building the infrastructure for the organization to function well, while the other focuses primarily on the people. Of course, both are necessary for a strong organization, but the different emphases can have a significant impact on the organization’s growth.

When you start with tools, you get a less intimate organization. When people interact through tools, they have different feelings about the other individuals in their organization. The other people are simply text on the screen, as rendered by the tool. Tools allow administrators to enforce policy and lubricate processes, but they don’t inherently encourage interpersonal interaction. An organization’s people are often its greatest asset, and they need to be brought together as much as possible.

A leader who focuses on people first is taking a risk. When you focus on the people, you face a couple of dangers. First, you can misstep and create a negative culture. Second, you can focus too little on the other concerns, such as tools, and end up with a bunch of people getting nothing done. When played correctly, though, a people focus can create a tight-knit, efficient team that accomplishes great things with ease. Once the people are working together well, the tools fall into place. A strong team with good people is the basis of a strong organization, and I believe that a focus on people from the start creates the best kind of organization.

Leadership is hard, and I’m nowhere near good at it. After seven years of trying, I’ve finally gotten to the point where I don’t screw it all up. I think I have an idea at this point of what the right thing is, and I’m striving this semester to work toward effective teams. I believe that the people are far more important to a team than its tools, and focusing too much on tools early on will hurt the team.

Posted by Eric Allen
Filed in Business
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