TBM 39/52: Joyful Complex Work
This thread by Dr. Cat Hicks is one of the most thought provoking things I’ve read this year. I highly recommend you follow Cat on Twitter.
Here is (most of) the thread:
Doing research with developer teams, something that really strikes me is how much people look for ways to make complex problems easy rather than make it easy to work on complex problems
What I mean is, sometimes it's really useful to admit we just are trying to accomplish tough things. Asking how we can support our teams who NEED the time and space to work through that, it's often a much more tractable lever than trying to change the inherent nature of the work
I think it behooves me to say as a psychologist here that I think people are actually really excellent at working on complex problems! It's one of the reasons research with developers is so great. Overall devs love to learn, love to be curious, love to innovate. It is core stuff.
What would it look like if we could ask, "how do I make this the absolute best environment for complex problem-solving" instead of "how do I take away all these annoying hard problems." The stuff we want to accomplish in the world is hard. But can be joyful to accomplish.
So much to think about! Don’t share this post with coworkers. Share Cat’s thread.
I don’t have anything to add at the moment, but I do have a question for you!
When we reframe the goal as “making it easier to work on complex problems” (vs. making complex problems easy) what comes to mind?
What describes an environment that is conducive to joyful work on complex problems?
What have you seen work?
PS: I’m very excited to be chatting strategy with Ibrahim Bashir (VP of Product at Amplitude) who writes one of my favorite Substacks Run the Business. Today/tomorrow Thursday, September 8. Will be recorded.
John, this reminds me of my time at AOL in the 90’s and 00’s. There were some in the tech space that belittled those of us working on the tech product behind the AOL experience. But those same tech literates were using the early internet tech that was ridiculously complicated for the average human (even by todays standards with more tech literacy those original products are mostly suitable for devs not civvies). So when they’d laugh at us and say we were building training wheels for the internet, I would discuss just how hard and complex it was to do that! And remember - this was pre-broadband, so delivering rich, visual experiences that were easy to use was hella hard to do! And me and my fellow AOLrs loved every minute of it.
It's not just developers. There are entire consultancies devoted to monetizing organizations with complex problems by promising them they can "simplify" them. It's complicit denial of a complex world.
If any consultant comes to you telling you they can simplify your complex problems so that they can magically disappear ... run away. Do not pass Go.