Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: Success by Rituals and Ceremonies

"You must do the ceremonies!"  Not a Shabbos Shuva drash, but a constant reminder from my manager.  Software engineering and management has always been challenging.  As the name implies, it's "soft" and easy to change.  There's a problem?  No problem, just retype a few lines of instructions.  So what's the problem?  Big problem.  There are 10s of thousands of lines of instructions; many thousands of which depend on other thousands in lots of hidden way.  On the one hand, any change is likely to have unpredicted side effects, so every change needs thought and planning.  On the other hand, change is imperative.  New features need to be added to keep up, of course.  The system needs to be continually made faster and more efficient.  Oh, and of course, there are those defects.  As computers and the internet becomes faster and cheaper, development needs to keep apace.

The process du jour (I know, that doesn't look correct to me, either; but Merriam Webster says differently)  is known as "Agile".  In brief, the process goes like this.  Two week units of development, known as "sprints".  Each sprint begins with a day of planning the work to be done and ends with a day of showcasing the results accomplished.  Part of planning the coming week is a retrospective on what did and did not go well in the last sprint.  After the showcase, we do a risk analysis for the upcoming week.  We also have daily "stand up" meetings; 15 minutes in which we each report on what we accomplished yesterday, what we plan to accomplish that day, and any roadblocks that could derail our plans.  All told, approximately 25% of our week is taken up by meetings about work and not actually working.  By the way, my company provides an online service to insurance companies (who are not forgiving of downtime) and I work in the "Lights On" team; that is, our work makes sure we provide the services expected, thus keeping us in business (keeping the lights on).  Why in the world does management let us get away with 25% of our time dedicated to "not working"?

Because it works.  We are much more productive than groups who just do all day, every day.  We are more productive because we are goal driven and focused.  We have a demonstrated track record of delivering quality results ahead of schedule.

Why am I telling you about this?  Because suppose I had started by telling you that the M'silas Yesharim, in his first chapter on a Chazal's 10 step program to perfection, begins with this statement:
A person who goes through this world with out contemplation of he is on the right path or not is like a blind man walking on the edge of a river.  The danger is imminent and profound; he is more likely to be badly hurt (or worse) than to be safe.
You would have said, "That is so true!  I wish I had time to do that."  You don't have the time not do it.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: Love in the Time of Corona Virus/Anxiously Awaiting the Mashiach

Two scenarios: Scenario I: A young boy awakened in the middle of the night, placed in the back of vehicle, told not to make any noise, and the vehicle speeds off down the highway. Scenario II: Young boy playing in park goes to see firetruck, turns around to see scary man in angry pursuit, poised to attack. I experienced and lived through both of those scenarios. Terrifying, no? Actually, no; and my picture was never on a milk carton. Here's the context: Scenario I: We addressed both set of our grandparents as "grandma" and "grandpa". How did we distinguish? One set lived less than a half hour's drive; those were there "close grandma and grandpa". The other set lived five hour drive away; they were the "way far away grandma and grandpa". To make the trip the most pleasant for all of us, Dad would wake up my brother and I at 4:00AM, we'd groggily -- but with excitement! -- wander out and down to the garage where we'd crawl

Thought for the Day: David HaMelech's Five Stages of Finding HaShem In the World

Many of us "sing" (once you have heard what I call carrying a tune, you'll question how I can, in good conscience, use that verb, even with the quotation marks) Eishes Chayil before the Friday night Shabbos meal.  We feel like we are singing the praises of our wives.  In fact, I have also been to chasunas where the chasson proudly (sometimes even tearfully) sings Eishes Chayil to his new eishes chayil.  Beautiful.  Also wrong.  (The sentiments, of course, are not wrong; just a misunderstanding of the intent of the author of these exalted words.) Chazal (TB Brachos, 10a) tell us that when Sholmo HaMelech wrote the words "She opens her mouth Mwith wisdom; the torah of kindness is on her tongue", that he was referring to his father, Dovid HaMelech, who (I am continuing to quote Chazal here) lived in five worlds and sang a song of praise [to each].  It seems to me that "world" here means a perception of reality.  Four times Dovid had to readjust his perc

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aruch HaRav that referred to the noise of תקתוק