Coordination

I outed myself as a choir kid on Chats with Kent this month

With nervous honesty, I confessed that my favorite human achievement is coordination and that I’ve never experienced it in software development.

Choir, orchestra, The Rolling Stones, Beyoncé’s Single Ladies, a Destiny fire team where players lead, follow, partner, and sacrifice themselves at in unity…

I love teams for their ability to hit harder, go farther, and be more than an individual
But that more requires humility, partnership, and trust

I made a big mistake in my transition to software development. I overestimated the software engineer’s natural ability to coordinate. I underestimated the their ability to identify the sabotage of self-interest and I overestimated the technical manager’s ability to coach away outbursts of unhelpful self-expression.

As someone who believes in team,
I thought coordination was something engineers just needed to see more of to understand. But I was wrong; I don’t think it’s in the archetype. And I’m wondering if it’s time for something new.

🤔 Chan

What experiences did you have in your former lives that you miss in your current career? Think you can find it?