The Secret Developer and the George Washington Paradox
The Secret Developer is here to unravel a paradox as old as America’s foundation and link that to the world of software development.
“Don’t worry about a half-remembered history class right now. I won’t go on about Delaware too much as in the tech world we have plenty of contradictions to think about (and solve).”
Coding: A Battle of Contradictions
Like Washington crossing the Delaware, we navigate through conflicting codes and paradoxical programming paradigms.
Agile != Structured
Innovative within constraints
The number of paradoxes and their impact on our daily coding life is not to be underestimated.
The Washington Paradox
How could a man who has so frequently been portrayed as cold, cautious, and devoid of the common touch plunge impulsively into the maelstrom of revolution and civil war?
These paradoxes have been discussed forever. The truth is that Washington could be all of that through his leadership skills and by staying true to the cause.
“This is something that software developers need to learn on their leadership journey. You can battle through the paradoxes by being straight and true.”
The Leadership Conundrum
Tech leaders grapple with being authoritative yet approachable. They are expected to be visionary yet grounded.
“Frankly leaders who could code would be a great thing. Sure, tech leaders don’t absolutely have to code.
From a position of empathy and understanding, we would have better tech leaders. We might then have better-quality software development. Then better products.
Wouldn’t that be nice?”
The Revolution of Tech
Washington spearheaded a revolution despite the paradoxes at the heart of his story. We’re at the forefront of a technological revolution.
“With great power comes great responsibility. Are we paving a path of innovation for the betterment of society, or are we lost in the woods of our ambition?
It matters what we are doing it all for. We need to have a mission.
A tech company with a mission the devs buy into? That would be nice.”
Conclusion
Embracing the paradox is the way to go. On this George Washington Day let us understand that things will not be perfect. We can aim higher though, and hope that we can do iteratively better.
“I wish corporate improvement was as simple as coding and iterative improvement. It would just be so much nicer to make progress and feel we’re getting closer to great software development.”