Mark Freedman’s Blog

Archive for the ‘Productivity’ Category

The most important question is always why. Why do you think that is?

Picture a familiar scenario. Your young child asks one day…

"Why did you marry Mommy?"

"Because we love each other."

"But, why?"

"Because we grew to care for each other."

"Why?"

"We were attracted to each other…"

"Why?"

"…so we started to spend time together."

"But why not somebody else?"

"Because we felt that we were meant for each other."

"Why did you think that?"

"Because."

"Why?"

It may be annoying, but isn’t that how we always learned as kids? Sure, as kids we knew quickly that it bugged adults, but we kept asking for two reasons. 1) It got a rise out of grownups, and 2) we really did learn a lot by asking.

When Did Why Become Taboo?

Why did we stop? Did we start to feel uncomfortable asking the why question? Maybe we felt as though it intruded on the askee. As we matured, did we start to feel it was rude?

In this information age, we are constantly bombarded with more information in a week than our ancestors in their entire lives. We’re drowning in facts and figures, and overwhelmed with the available knowledge. But at the same time, it takes us too long to find the answers we’re looking for. Why is that? Are we not asking the right questions, or are we avoiding the why questions?

Sometimes we’re afraid to answer the why questions, because it may expose our lack of understanding. Once you can ask why , you’re on the path to learning.

"Why would I use a GridView instead of a Repeater?"

Doesn’t it feel safer to just lookup details about the GridView control and the Repeater control and just compare them ourselves? Don’t want to seem stupid for asking why we’d use one over the other, right?

Too Many What Questions

Too many books and tutorials start out with the "do this, then do that" without explaining why. "Why did you take this approach?"

The question that triggers the most thinking is the why question. Whys will make you wiser.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

If someone fails at something, they ask themselves all kinds of questions. "What did I do? How do I make this different next time?" But the question they’ll get the most out of is, "Why did I choose to do it that way? Why should I do it differently next time?" By asking the why , you learn a lot about the motivating factors that led towards the path of failure to begin with, so you can avoid that same path next time. Maybe your motivations were wrong. Maybe your decisions were based on faulty or incomplete information. Asking what will only lead to identifying what you did wrong. But without understanding the "why", there is no basis for change. You can easily repeat the same mistakes.

If you’re teaching someone, ask yourself why you’re teaching that way. By questioning yourself, you may discover a better way to explain things.

Arrogance — What Without Why

Just stating what to do can come off as arrogant. It’s like your parents telling you when you were younger, "do it because I said so" — like that actually motivated you to do it. It actually motivated you to do the opposite, just to discover the why , yourself. Why do they want you to do it, and what would happen if you didn’t? Why helps you fill in gaps of knowledge.

If you want someone to do something, explaining the why allows them to feel more apt to do it. In the worst case, at least maybe they could suggest a better option if they at least they know your motivation.

The Power of Why

Why is an extremely powerful question with potentially powerful answers. It teaches us to question everything. We live in a society where we take almost everything for granted. That’s because most people are afraid of asking why . The answers may challenge the way we’ve always approached things our whole lives. But at the same time, it opens up a whole new set of opportunities.

Why is the key to self-discovery. It helps you understand yourself better. At the same time, it’s the scariest question you could ask of yourself. It forces you to look into the mirror.

All questions are powerful, but if you start with why, the what, how, and when just fills in the blanks to resolve the why .

The Problems with Most Tests

This is also why multiple choice tests are a very poor learning tool. It tests memorization. They ask the what, not the why. Essay questions are the why questions. It forces us to think. It forces us to analyze, which leads to true learning. Unfortunately, the system encourages the simple (for teachers) multiple choice tests.

Curiosity

Why do you think the Imponderables series of books are so popular? Because most of the questions start out with why . Why is the most interesting question. Their answers satisfy our curiosity. Be aware that some what questions are just why questions in disguise, so don’t take it literally when I say that why questions are the most important. Related why disguises are "What is the reason for that? What is the meaning of that? How can you do that?" (all of them really mean, "Why did you do that?" ), etc.

When someone is reporting bad news, isn’t the first question that comes to mind the why question? "Why would somebody commit that crime? Why was that person in that neighborhood so late?" Why do they want to start a war?" One of the first things investigators look for is the motive for a crime. While the CSIs look for the what to help prove a crime was committed and by whom, when deciding guilt or the level of punishment, it all comes down to the why. He can be guilty if we could find a motivation he may have had. Once we have a motivation, we can tie him to the crime.

Why Forces You to Think

Why questions should make you pause to consider your answer, and not just shoot from the hip. "Why did that person cut me off?" should cause you to consider that maybe she just got an emergency phone call, or she’s rushing to the hospital, or she’s late for work, instead of just saying, "she’s a jerk." If nothing else, it could allow you to calm down and consider why someone did something rather than what they just did to you.

Why is the most fascinating question. Don’t fear it. It’s a powerful tool. Wield it.

My wife is a photographer, right on the cusp of going professional. People who are familiar with her work constantly turn to her for advice on photography and Photoshop. They want to know what tools she uses to get the results she gets, such as what lenses and Photoshop plug-ins to use. Often they end up disappointed that their results don’t match up to hers.

The thing that they, and many people tend to miss is the fact that the tools can only get you so far. Just because you may use the best tools available, it doesn’t mean that you know how to take advantage of those tools. It takes practice using the tools, experience in choosing which to use for the appropriate situation, dedication to the efforts of producing quality results with those tools, and obviously the natural ability of the user.

I remember hearing a story about a woman who threw a cocktail party for friends, and during the night she played her baby grand piano for her guests. She performed beautifully, and at the end of the evening, one woman came up to her and said, “I’d do anything to be able to play like you.” The host replied, “No you wouldn’t.” The guest was taken aback, and asked what she meant by that remark. The host explained that it took many years of dedication and practice for her to play like she does, and that the guest didn’t really mean what she said when she claimed she’d do “anything” to play like her.

Just because you’d like to be accomplished at a certain talent or task, and just because you obtain all the best tools to help you get there, it does not guarantee success. You can’t automatically reach your goal without learning how to use the available tools, learning about your capabilities in the process, mixing the ingredients in just the right way, and producing the right results.

On The Business of Software blog, someone asked if there’s a risk in revealing the tools they use to produce a successful product, and if it would give a competitor an edge in doing so. My point is that just knowing what tools to use will not make someone a stronger competitor. It’s no real secret what type and size bat Babe Ruth used throughout his career, and anyone could have gotten their hands on a replica or his actual bat, but that does not mean they’d get the same results as The Babe if they did so.

Likewise, there’s no real secret of the availability of the tools the person on the blog mentioned. Anyone could find them, read about success stories from people using them, and trying to use the tools themselves. If you’re able to produce something of value using the tools available, it’s a combination of so much more which provide your unique solution, so don’t worry about the competitors who are probably using most of the same tools anyway.

When it comes to estimating, developers live in an idealistic world. Despite repeated experiences of constant interruptions causing projects to overrun estimates, developers tend to look at subsequent projects with wishful thinking.

It’s strange. Most developers associate so much pain with the last minute rush to deadlines, you’d think they’d surely tack time onto their next estimate. Developers absolutely loathe the following required and unavoidable tasks that occur almost every day:

• Interruptions by managers
• Interruptions by other developers
• Bug fix requests by QA
• Status meetings (Scrum and other)
• Design meetings (theirs and their teammates’ — ok, they usually find some enjoyment and challenge in these)
• Deployment meetings
• Code Reviews
• Etc. (does “etc.” warrant a bullet?)

Yet, with so many of these cutting into their daily attempts for focused development, you’d think they’d take these into account when estimating the next project. Developers dream of a world where they could lock themselves alone in a room for days, with coffee and junk food, and just code…

(taking a break to dream… niiice…)

…and nothing will ever kill that dream, no matter the pain of what they’ve just been through. It’s an admirable stubbornness and idealistic mindset, but it just ain’t realistic.

Developers, (developers, developers,) if you can’t convince yourself that you’ll be doing more than coding, for your next estimate pretend that you’re working at least 30% less than a full week. Just pretend you’ll only be working 25 to 30 hours per week. Now how long will it take you to complete the project?

Of course, the next thing to tackle is the complaints about interruptions, even after proper estimates…

When I drive to and from work, I listen to podcasts. It makes the trip go faster, and allows me to focus on something other than the traffic. It also takes my mind off the day’s events if it was a rather difficult one.

Quiet Time

But sometimes I need to shut everything off and have quiet time to really think. Listening to podcasts and the radio gets in the way. It can cause you to avoid seriously thinking about life and what you should be doing, which is something that can be uncomfortable to think about. That’s because this usually involves having difficult thoughts you have to face, and even terrifying decisions you have to make. But sometimes you’ve got to just sit in your car, and think clearly about these things without any distractions.

Life Defining Decisions

I was recently in this situation. My boss had set up a meeting for the next day to discuss my future goals at our company. I wasn’t totally clear in my head about my plans. Or was it that I was unclear about what I wanted to tell him? I wanted to say that I’d like to stay in the technology field, but I needed to work on something that would make a real difference in the world. There’s an idea that I’ve been working on for several years with a couple of other people. We’ve put together many revisions of a business plan, have a working prototype, and feel that if we can get this product out there, it could improve the productivity of millions of people. It’s software I’d love to use myself.

Eventually, a lot of us find ourselves in interesting but ultimately unfulfilling jobs. Some of us get to the point where we want to spend our time and energy towards making our own dream a reality, instead of supporting someone else’s dream.

It was during one of these deep thought sessions when I decided to tell my boss my true goals. I work for a startup (well, I’m not sure you could call us that anymore, but I’m one of the very early employees), and ownership is entrepreneurial. They know what I’m capable of, and I know the owners pretty well. I’d heard that they’ve helped other like-minded employees before, so I was willing to open up. It’s rather liberating to no longer keep this bottled up.

Literally Listening to Yourself

Even after turning off the podcasts, it’s easy to get distracted with bottled up thoughts bouncing around in your head. So one thing I’ve started to do is record my thoughts. This prevents them from slipping through the cracks, making it all too easy not to take action on a lot of this stuff. I’ve found that recording is great. I can review later, analyze better, and think more clearly. I often feel embarrassed talking out loud — even to myself. This is one of the reasons I want to try Toastmasters. Not only to get more comfortable speaking in public, but to feel more comfortable speaking to myself.

Since I began this habit, almost all of my blogging entries have originated from this self-dictation. I find myself debating a topic (with myself) for an hour, and later on I transpose it all to a draft entry. Over the next several days (or weeks, when I have a lot of recordings), I refine it, and eventually post it.

I highly recommend talking to yourself in this way. You’ll learn a lot about yourself just by listening to your thoughts through your own ears. You may not always like what you hear, but you will become more comfortable doing it. And it may lead to some life defining decisions.

The next step… video?

I’ve been sick on and off for the past few weeks. It reached a pinnacle last week when I inevitably came down with the flu. I hadn’t been this sick in a few years, and like many of us who’s experienced this, not being able to do anything towards my goals was driving me absolutely insane.

Ok, so I thought I’d take advantage of this externally (perhaps, self-) imposed restriction to slow myself down, get the rest I’ve been lacking, and help myself re-focus (a common theme). But just trying to take naps had been next to impossible. Even through my dehydration-causing semi-delirium, my mind had never raced so much with all the things I wanted to be doing, needed to be doing, wished I was doing. Maybe it’s time to learn some meditation techniques?

I consider myself an underachieving overachiever. I think in the past couple of decades there has been an explosion of people like me (sounds messy), who not only began to understand their potential for the first time, but also became aware of the opportunities never before available to the human race for actualizing this potential. This has created a culture obsessed with achievement. But it has also created a lot more disillusionment, not only with society, but with ourselves.

We’re wondering why we haven’t achieved everything we expect ourselves to achieve. Why does one person do one thing to change the world in obvious ways, while the next, just as capable person, can barely change the department he works in?

And we have so many potentially life-changing projects going on at the same time. We want to do everything before we’re gone. In this world, we’re more aware than any previous generation of how relatively short our time is in this life, and we’re always in a rush to make things happen.

We don’t even give ourselves time to get sick, or recover when we do.

We read self-help books, blogs, go to seminars, listen to tapes, and even practice all the best practices, and still it feels like it’s all a race.

And it is. You know why? Because we’re racing against ourselves. We have so many things we’re trying to achieve at the same time that we give everything, and I mean EVERYTHING the short end of the stick. Nothing gets our complete attention. Because we’re afraid.

We’re afraid of choosing the wrong thing to focus on. We’re afraid of taking the wrong turn. We’re afraid that several years down the line we’ll look back and realize that we chose the wrong things to focus on, and we’re now just that many years closer to the end. We’ll look at the other paths with regret, and we’ll notice who succeeded down those paths. So now we try to cover all our bases, and head down five paths at once, trying to grab our piece of each, hoping we’ll make our mark in at least one or two before it’s too late.

Sound familiar?

But all of those are half-hearted efforts. And none will truly succeed. If we put 20% of our efforts into 5 different paths, we’ll make maybe 15% of our goal in each of those paths at best. But if we put 80% of our efforts into 1 path, and split the other 20% into another 1 or 2 paths, our success rates would go way up, and when we notice we took a wrong turn (after bypassing the Dip), we can then refocus the 80% on one of the other paths.

I don’t have many answers yet. Like so many others, I’m still struggling with this, so I’m just thinking out loud here.