TransplantSkills

Long ago I remember appliing theories and skills I had learned in art school to software problems. I felt both comfort and shock. Shock because skills of visualization and judgement that were developed for a 2-D application all of a suden had application to an n-D space. And, comfort for the same reason. Struggling with a new probem that I assumed required new skills, I discovered how familiar ones could also apply. The result was higher confidence and effectiveness.

Have you had experiences like this?

BeckyWinant 2003.06.03

Constantly, it seems to be a theme of my life. In fact, a friend and I were just discussing how much we can learn by watching my horses get used to the llamas that just moved in next door.

Now, horses and llamas *can* live together in peace, but an adult horse needs to be carefully introduced to llamas. Horses, like all animals I'm aware of, communicate via body posture and gestures. Llamas are built very differently from horses, in particular their necks and heads are very upright and usually carried at a 90 degree angle to the ground. In horse language, that posture means one of two things: 1) I am very VERY afraid of what I am looking at, or 2) and am VERY angry at you! And either meaning will totally freak out a horse.

I knew the llamas had arrived by the way my horses were acting when I went up to feed one night. Actually, I thought it was either a bear or a cougar, and I was NOT going to wander back in the trees to check it out. :-) But I did hike to the back fence during daylight a couple of days later and had a good laugh when I saw the llamas and saw how terrified my horses were. (Ronnie, the big quarter horse, tried to hide behind me and peek out at the scary monsters.)

It's now two weeks later, and several horses have moved in with the llamas. The horses definitely tell the llamas what to do, and after watching this dynamic for a couple of days, my horses have relaxed and Ronnie is now bossing the llamas thru the fence. Cool - I've watched a member of another species (Ronnie) become bilingual!

--SuePetersen 2003.06.03

Software development processes, and Software Engineering are well and easily understood in terms of the process & process dynamics models of chemical engineering: Intro to, Kinetics, Thermodynamics, and Process Control. Chemistry teaches combinatorics and a lot about the artifacts we create when doing software. Math - the sequence I took had us prove calculus beginning with 3 set axioms - is a kind of rigorous thinking, plus predicates, plus synthesis the hard way. I took some graduate math on a lark some years later so got a double dose of this, plus a deep appreciation for equivalent formal systems. It was an "Intro to Abstract Algebra." Social Psych taught me about thinking of systems of people, along with some data about those systems.

The performing arts teach about flow, and displaying technique while being in the experience. The techniques are deliberately, thoughtfully developed although not reflect on while they are being used. Leonard's "Mastery" is probably the canonical reference on this one. Some time ago I was a musician, and even longer ago an athelete. Cooking teaches me still about the range of vocabulary available in materials and techniques. My change in the performing arts I practice probably helps explain why I am rounder now than I was then.

I'm actually pretty underwhelmed by the direct content of CS curriculums. It's some vocabulary, with the occasional interesting if narrow model. - JimBullock, 2003.06.03 (But what would I know - I never graduated.)

I loved Sue's entry above about llamas and horses. The different species use posture differently to mean very different things. I work with civilians and active duty military officers. The two cultures use the same postures and words to mean very different things.

For example, a military officer will stand erect with a stiff back, chest out to show respect. A civilian will do so to mock someone. A military officer will stare straight ahead while someone is walking around talking to them to show respect, a civilian will do the same to show boredom.

We had an example last week where a military officer had to send a very important message to a civilian. Given the importance, the officer sent the message via Internet email to the civilian's official [email protected] account. Civilians never read their email at those accounts (various reasons why). The civilian never received the message, the military officer interpreted the non-response as, "You go ahead with this, I don't have time to participate," and the project was a disaster.

DwaynePhillips 4 June 2003

Jim,

I blinked and your email list came to an end!

Huh? -jb

Brian Pioreck told a wonderful story about cooking pancake breakfast with his kids and for his wife, and compared it to managing a software project. It's in the AYE book of essays. You mention how cooking taught you about techniques and materials. Was that before or after you had already been working in software?

Both, or actually three choices out of the two presented. When I grew up my parents owned a small resort where we all worked. I grew up doing large-scale kind of cafeteria cooking, among other things. That's pre-software. I learned some of the resturant techniques kind of in mid-software career. Getting really focused on particular techniques or materials is recent - last 3 or 4 years.
I think the idea of making things and an immediate unconscious appreciation for doing processes to transform things comes from the early cooking. The structural aspects of software - low level "design" or "implementation" details - have never been my primary frame of reference. I think in terms of the process of making the stuff. The "stuff" has properties, which you're trying to bring out through that process. I think that's directly from the early cooking - a whole lot, for a whole lot of people. - jb

I rather enjoyed my undergraduate liberal arts degree. It let me cover a range of subjects and often connected events and elements of one to another. A kind of degree in lateral thinking.

So, what is the canonical reference - Leonard's "Mastery" (for those of us who don't know)?

See

BeckyWinant 2003.06.04

Sue, I loved your observations on the horses and llamas.

Becky

I see transplant skills going both ways frequently. Lessons learned in software maintainability led me to look at house construction for maintainability. When I was younger and more optimistic, I wanted both to be "built to last as-is" with no regard for future changes. As I became more experienced, I look for construction that allows access to the workings if I need to fix or alter things. The experience of a house built on a slab with all the plumbing inaccessable under the concrete gave me much to think about!

In other areas, I find hard-won people skills from software team experience give me insights into dysfunctional organizations that cling to cammand & control rather than teamwork. The education establishment is a mixed bag with islands of excellence and bogs of seniority without hope. I try to exploit "teachable moments" that may not fit the schedule, but make a difference.

--BobLee 2003.06.05

Jim,

Thanks or the Mastery reference. I know have a place to go read about the "book of record" for Mastery. Give me a few weeks to catch up :)
Maybe this "put a review on Bookshelved when someone asks" will work for me, to get at least the important reviews out there. The task has just been too daunting otherwise. So keep asking. Maybe I can make a habit here. - jb

I really like the skew that cooking has done to shape your view of software. I wonder what a Culinary Arts Institute curriculm might offer a CS curriculum?

Some actual relevance? Staying power? - jb

Back when I lived int he Hudson Valley in NY state I had a friend who went to the CIA in NY (nearby). I was struck by how much he learned was directly relevant to our business, too. I would say that my friend Bruce learned a lot more about project management, risks and fincial planning than most CS people. Hmmmm, wonder if others here have some thoughts about the relevance of traditionally "management skills" for the technical folk.

I have a similar bias about PM skills. The formal tools are interesting, and useful in their place. How about practice and the guts to do something when there are unknowns? That's real doing stuff. I suspect that practice in "real doing stuff" is one reason ex-military folks tend to do so well as a class in management and technical fields. There are other reasons of course, and some down-sided. - jb

BeckyWinant 2003.06.05

Bob,

Great reversal on the transplant skills!

For me organizations are challenging. I fall back to the Dani and Jerry Weinberg views that stress culture. This puts many awkward and seemingly "dysfunctional" groups in perspective. I am still learning patience when looking at cultures.

I'd love to hear more about what you have found that lets you affect the larger culture to achieve the exposure and (hopefully) the result you want.

Before I went to Europe for the first time in 1969-1970 I had read The Ugly American. I think this book just might be coming around again to a point of poignancy.

-BeckyWinant 203.06.05

The Ugly American! I get the feeling that a whole generation now has missed reading that, and now holds the White House, too.

This points out the tendency to think, "We've solved that problem. We won't have to think about it ever again, besides, every one os too familiar with it to forget." Then, fast-forward about 5-20 years and the problem is new and difficult again.

Perhaps the patterns movement is a hope for this phenomenon. A pattern language of international relations?

--BobLee 2003.06.07

Updated: Saturday, June 7, 2003