Hey it’s March 4, the only date that is also a command…

Today I been thinking about an article that my friend Rod sent me it’s called stabiles and volatiles.

http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2012/11/14/stables_and_volatiles.html

The author suggests that there are two kinds of people in an organization the stables that like the status quo and the volatiles which one everything to change all at once. Stables value clean running process, predictability, and evenness of work. While the volatiles want to leap ahead, Code now think later… The two types are constant war with each other. The volatile’s look at the stables and blame them for a lack of innovation and a general malaise about the business. On the other hand the stables look at the volatiles and accuse them of prototyping wildly and leave the cleanup to other people. (Yes, I know … I am a volatile)

We all know both types in our work. That was no surprise. What i did find interesting was that the author said rather than trying to make peace between these two types it is often in the company’s best interest to let the battle rage. He claims that dynamic tension how to balance rapid change with the need for stable growth. Okay I can believe that. What was more interesting however was that the author claims that most stables were at one time volatiles themselves. They are just now protecting the processes they thought so hard to bring in.

I found it interesting because I often found myself lately protecting an earlier decision. For example it might be a software architecture or a Programming language choice or Hardware architecture choice. A perfect example is the advent of the raspberry pi. It’s an amazing and inexpensive small computer designed for hobbyists. I am so familiar with its predecessor, the Arduino, that I was reluctant to try the raspberry pi for fear I might fall in love with it.… Which I subsequently did. I guess I’m just a failed stabile.

I guess it’s just like Marx would say… That the revolutionary of today is the bourgeois of tomorrow…

I guess I’m just bourgeois… Whatever that means.

Night all, night Sam
– JC

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad