Tim Bray gave up the props to me in his journal
yesterday. Once upon a
time he mentioned an Asian artist but couldn't remember the name quite right. I have an unofficial minor in Asian Culture from Oklahoma State University. "Unofficial?" you ask. "Unofficial," I say. "You see, they didn't actually offer a minor in Asian studies at OSU, but I had enough hours of Asian art, history, and Chinese language that it should have qualified." It might well have if I had been at a 'real' school...but I'm _not_ bitter. *grin* Besides, I focused my electives on Asian studies because I thoroughly enjoyed them and not because I would gain anything besides enlightenment from it.
Also in the news this morning, Apple released a security patch for the browser vulnerability that I
reported. It only took them
17 days to distribute - this is actually very good performance considering the problem affected the Web Core of the OS; I am very pleased with the response.
After another day at work of not getting to work on what I wanted (and needed) to do I feel a very strong urge for change. Wanting to cleanse myself and enjoy something pure, unadulterated, and thoroughly, because at work all they care about is volume and not quality, I took Maryna to Tuchi's Italian restaurant; a small, slow place with great quality and atmosphere. Tuchi's is the perfect local escape from the trappings of Tulsa; they treated us as the waiters at European cafes - by leaving us alone to talk and enjoy our food, and I enjoyed this thoroughly. Working should be more like drinking wine - every activity should be savored and mulled over, not rushed. Any kind of design work should be subject to a slow and deliberate creative process. No employee should be given more work than can be easily handled. This is the only way to develop good designs and produce good work. Did Michael Angelo rush any of his work? No. They are master pieces. Information Technology is difficult because the managers in charge don't understand all of the nuances. They don't understand why they can't have it "now" when they wanted it yesterday and didn't know it until 5 minutes ago. It is probably one of the largest rat races ever run in the history of the world. My belief is that the majority of software bugs are introduced because products are
rushed to market half done - the marketing forces only think about the short term income of putting out the product. They don't stop to consider the long term implications. There are more important things than short term gains in income, and these are things that will ensure long term income and higher revenue in the long term: quality, reputation (for quality), and quality. Quality is something that most companies think that their employees should provide without input from the corporate culture. This belief is a common misconception. Without the proper corporate culture, producing quality will remain an unattainable goal; eventually the employees will begin fighting amongst themselves (finger pointing for whose fault the latest failures where ) until the corporation finally breaks down and degrades to lower levels of profitability. The study of emergent behavior provides great examples of why it isn't necessarily any particular employee's fault, but rather the system at the organizational level which is the culprit. It is the interaction that is important - communication. The environment is important, just as sitting in a particular frequency of light has an effect on your mood so does sitting at a particular desk or under track lighting. Everything has an effect on the process... and the variables are innumerable and all together unaccountable. The unaccountability of the environment only fuels the lack of quality. If the environment where fully accountable, better planning would be done. Better planning would relief the pressures of the "now" because managers would realize what kind of resources are truly needed to accomplish a task. Poor planning equals rushed and over worked employees equals poor quality, equals poor reputation, equals less business. Do the math people. Do the math.
Ultimately there is only one way to improve the situation: saying "no". Saying no to clients who are in a hurry. Saying no to clients who want too much for too cheap. Saying no to clients who want IT without truly having the budget for it. Saying no to the managers who want their projects done yesterday and only began it this morning. Saying no. Saying no to the insanity of the system. It is time. It is time to say "no" - no more insanity. No more rushing. No more. It ceases now.
