Over here I explained how I was fed up of considering individual solutions to global chaos. I want to be able to imagine collective solutions, and the first step is to celebrate the collaboration I already know about.
I’m going to start with Sale Sings choir, which I joined in the summer of 2023.
It all started when I attended a 2-day singing workshop with my friend Katy, in February. Two days of singing, together with many others, and revelling in the amazing sounds and feelings people can create when they sing together. I was introduced to Rose, a wonderfully charismatic local choir director, and I knew I wanted more, so I joined her Sale Sings choir.
But no, it all started when I joined Accord gospel choir a few years ago. I was having a terrible time, being badly bullied by a member of senior staff in my teaching job. One of my colleagues told me about Accord. This small group of singers lifted me up, sang with me and laughed with me and helped me gain the strength I needed to move on to better things.
But no, it all started when I attended an African singing workshop at York Arts Centre when I was a teenager. What a wonderful way of singing! What amazing sounds we made together!
Or did it start when I was a child and I sang in the school choir? Or the local church choir? Or when my mother and grandmother encouraged me to sing at any opportunity?
I’m not great in large groups of people I don’t know, and I confess when I first joined Sale Sings, I worried that people would be mean to me, or laugh at me, or leave me out of things. And I kept being delighted, over and over, by how kind and inclusive and friendly everyone was. That thing in this article about how “strangers who sang together for an hour emerged from the sessions with an unusually close bond”? I can tell you it’s true.
And then there’s the music. It’s so easy to create a massive gorgeous uplifting sound when several people sing together. It doesn’t matter if some people are a bit off key, or some have forgotten the words, or not everyone has quite grasped the rhythm yet. It doesn’t matter if you are the one that feels a bit lost. Together you make the magic (and you can listen to some of the magic from our Sale Sings choir here).
I’m so convinced of its power, I’ve started submitting singing workshop ideas to tech conferences. Fingers crossed someone will bite, and 2024 will see me leading a bunch of joyful geeks in song!
Often these days I find myself wondering, “What will I do if everything falls apart?” And by everything, I mean society. The world. The environment. It’s not hard to imagine. We’re surrounded by tales, both real and fictional, of war, environmental catastrophe, pandemic, zombie invasion. The most recent time my mind went off in that direction was while watching the film Leave the World Behind, but I could substitute this example with many others – from the news and from film/TV.
tl;dr It takes me a little while below to get to the point. If you’re in a rush, I’m asking for examples of ways in which people work together and collaborate for the common good. Add yours in the comments! My latest story is here.
I expect our family are not the only one that has had jokey conversations about where we would go to escape an impending apocalypse. One of my best friends jokily suggested a few years ago that I would not be invited to her well-defended self-sufficient stronghold, because I’m only a computer programmer – and the skills I have will be no use for growing veg or fixing leaky roof tiles.
But here’s the thing. Leave the World Behind contains a cynical analysis not unusual in productions of this kind. One of the characters, facing a vaguely-defined end-of-civilisation scenario, tries to encourage cooperation and prevent a violent stand-off with a neighbour. But this character is portrayed as living in a dream world. It’s every family group for themselves. Look after your own and don’t trust anyone else.
I found myself, as I often do, wondering where my family and I might go where we could be safe. What resources do we have in our small family unit that we might make use of if we could no longer trust anyone else to help us? And the film drove home the idea that if the shit hits the fan, we’ll all be alone. And I thought, well that’s it then. Not a unique or original thought, but if that’s what happens when everything falls apart, humanity really is doomed.
Many people think humanity is doomed. Because they don’t think that, as a global group, we have enough capacity to help each other when things go badly wrong. And things do go badly wrong, and they will, even if we can’t predict the scale or the frequency or any future collapse(s).
That was my first thought. That I couldn’t count on other people to help me and my loved ones in times of disaster. This is, of course, why people build bunkers and stockpile weapons and non-perishable goods. And yeah, maybe that’ll last you a while. But what will you do when your neighbours come knocking? Is survival even worth it, if that’s the cost?
But there was a second thought on the heels of the first one. That the only way we can survive large-scale catastrophes is if we focus on how all of us will survive instead of how me and my loved ones will survive. And even if all this is only in my fevered imagination for now (I haven’t started building a bunker), wouldn’t it be better if I directed that imagination towards collective solutions rather than individual ones?
Because no, I’m not literally planning for a doomsday scenario. But I’m thinking about it. And I’m not the only one. And the more I feel hopeless about it, and the more I’m convinced that our communities, at global, national, local or small neighbourhood level, have no real capacity or desire to help one another in times of crisis, then the more likely my daily life and mental health will suffer. And the less likely I am to collaborate with other people in small day-to-day ways. And the more likely I am to become atomised, suspicious and lonely. And the less likely I and everyone else are to find collective solutions when the shit really does hit the fan. And therefore the less likely it is that any of us will survive whatever major upheavals we face in the coming years or decades.
Where am I going with all this? Good question.
My first thought was, “We’re all doomed. It’s every person for themselves.”
My second thought was, “If that’s true, then we really are doomed. But if collaborative collective solutions are possible, they’re the only way we’ll survive.”
My third thought was, “Of course they’re bloody possible.”
We might have messed up this planet, we might face corrupt and dysfunctional governments all over the world. We might be killing each other left right and centre, but as well as all that, we are cooperating with each other. We are helping each other, daily, in big ways and small ways. And if we weren’t, we wouldn’t still be here.
I started thinking about all the collaborative initiatives I’ve witnessed and been involved in, that I am witnessing, that I am involved in.
Those who don’t know me well might be surprised to learn that I default towards individual solutions rather than collective ones. Peopling is hard for me. I find most humans unpredictable, and groups of strangers stressful. Social interaction is draining. Any time I spend with other people has to be balanced with time alone.
And yet despite all that, I’ve learnt that I need collaboration, I need other people, and when I consider my own needs as well as others, I get a huge amount from working collaboratively. From only the last couple of years, I can list several examples. They were all life-affirming, inspirational, heartwarming. They made me feel better. And thinking about them gives me hope, that maybe we’re not doomed after all. I’m going to list them below and I’m going to come back here to talk about them, one at a time.
But given the title of this post is “People Together” and the whole point of this idea is to focus on ways in which we are not atomised and we can and do work together, it seems like a no-brainer that I should somehow open this up and get other people involved. It’s still a half-formed idea. I’m not sure how this works. I know I have a tendency to over-complicate things and the best way to get started on anything is to keep it simple, so for now I’ll just say this:
The world is a scary place, and it’s tempting to believe that we’re all fundamentally alone.
It’s not true. We aren’t.
But it’s easy to forget that and to feel despair, and the more we believe we’re alone, the more we’ll behave as though we are. We won’t look to each other for help, and we won’t consider helping one another when it’s needed.
And stories are powerful.
So let’s remind each other that we’re not alone. Let’s tell each other stories of all the great things we do together.
In the first instance, and to keep things simple, those stories can be comments on this post. But I’d like, in the near future, to elevate each comment into a post of its own. I’m looking for a way of creating some kind of collaborative site where people can easily post stories. There are many ways I might do that – if you have ideas on how you can help, please let me know.
Below are quick descriptions of my examples. I’ll aim to come back and expand on each one separately, and I might add more as they come to me:
The ensemble collaborative working technique which I’ve been privileged to teach many people in 2023, and will continue to teach in 2024 (‘Ensemble” is French for “together”).
Small online communities. I have several of these that I contribute to regularly. One of them has been around for over 20 years and they’re all a source of succour, where people care about and support one another through all of life’s travails.
The free eight-week Menopause and Mindfulness group I attended this winter in a local community centre
The free storytime session I now lead for local children once a month in a local community centre
All the many conferences I spend time talking at, but in particular community-focused “open space” / “unconference” events such as SoCraTes UK.
PS I deliberately haven’t mentioned any specific politics or religion. Maybe that’s a cop-out, I dunno. For what it’s worth I’m not religious and my politics are left of centre, but that’s not the point. I used to sing in a gospel choir and I know religion can be a powerful positive force. In this context I make no assumptions, positive or negative, about those who share my politics or those who don’t. The point of this is that we tell each other uplifting inspirational stories of all the good things we can do together, to help one another and make things better.
(PPS This is a cross-post. The same post is also on my Medium blog.)
At the end of that talk and blog post I present the “Stupidity Manifesto”, which I’m reproducing below so that you can sign it and encourage others to sign it too!
The Stupidity Manifesto
LET’S STOP MAKING EACH OTHER FEEL STUPID. Instead, let’s…
ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO ASK QUESTIONS
Lead by example: Be honest when we’re confused
Value curiosity over knowledge
Prioritise clarity over jargon
Remember we all forget stuff
Get excited about teaching and learning
Acknowledge the broad range of knowledge in our industry, and avoid judging someone if their knowledge doesn’t match ours
LET’S STOP MAKING EACH OTHER FEEL STUPID.
To sign the manifesto, simply add your support as a comment on this post. Each comment will be counted as another signature in favour of the manifesto.
To sign the manifesto, simply add your support as a comment on this post. Each comment will be counted as another signature in favour of the manifesto.
Once upon a time, there was a female software engineer. When she studied mathematics at university, she was one of a tiny minority of female students. That was the first time she internalised the idea that women can’t do the same things that men can do. The evidence was in front of her eyes. And it was there again when she switched to software engineering. In her first job, she was the only female developer. And compared to her colleagues, she was a late developer. It seemed they had all taught themselves to code as children and teenagers. But this was the mid 90s. She attended university in the early 90s, where she never owned a computer and barely used one until after she graduated.
A few years later, in her second software job, she kept asking to work on the more difficult, more interesting, code bases… but she was always denied. When she interviewed for a more senior position elsewhere, she was told she didn’t know enough. She wasn’t surprised. It confirmed all her worst suspicions about herself.
Twelve years into her career, she was laid off and it was a relief. She had never felt like she belonged. She didn’t want to work in IT any more.
Here’s a question for you: Do you ever have to Google anything related to your sphere of expertise? When you do, do you shame yourself for it? Do you feel as though you’re supposed to know everything, and there’s something wrong with you if you don’t?
If you feel this way, you’re not alone. The woman described above is me. But now I’ve been doing this for over 23 years, and I make a living out of teaching software engineering skills. Does this mean I’ve finally reached the “comfortably confident that I know all the things” stage of my career? Nope. Quite the opposite.
The more I learn, the better I understand how little I know.
Being an effective IT professional is not about what you know!
These days, when I find myself beating myself up for my ignorance (and I’m sorry to tell you that I do still beat myself up), I remind myself that learning is a fundamental part of this profession. Rather than worrying because you still have stuff to learn, you should instead be concerned if you don’t.
But even when we know on some level that this is true, it’s not always what we tell each other. And as a result, we do untold damage by making each other feel stupid.
What if we didn’t do this? Imagine a world where you arrive at your desk each day excited about learning new things. Where you never worry that you don’t know enough. Where there is no such thing as imposter syndrome. Because it turns out that being an effective IT professional is not about what you know. But we think it is — and that causes problems.
Problematic behaviours
I left the industry because I felt inadequate and stupid. It seemed that everyone else knew more than me. But I do a lot of teaching these days, which means I’m now very aware of how common this feeling is, and I’ve noticed some behaviours that I believe make it worse for all of us. I run through all of them in my talk, and I’ll present the following key ones in this article:
Laughing at others for gaps in their knowledge
Talking in jargon
Hiding a lack of knowledge
Gatekeeping
Laughing at others for gaps in their knowledge
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve witnessed colleagues emerge from interviewing a prospective employee and saying things like “Can you believe, I just interviewed someone who didn’t even know what a Z was?” followed by incredulous laughter. Haha, what a doofus, fancy thinking they could get a job here if they don’t even know that.
Don’t make people want to hide away!
For Z, you can substitute your favourite surely everyone knows about this item, and I guarantee I can find you somebody amazing, experienced and successful who knows nothing about it.
But it helps us bond with each other, right? If we can have a bit of a laugh about how stupid those other people are? And it doesn’t do any harm, because they’re not in the room. They don’t know we’re laughing at them. No, they don’t. But you do. I do. Everyone else in the room does. I’m certainly not the only person thinking, I must make sure I don’t become the next butt of the jokes. Instantly feeling stupid, as I consider all the things I don’t know enough about.
The worst thing about this is, I’m likely to handle this problem by taking steps to hide my ignorance. I’ll join in the next round of laughter extra loud, to prove I’m one of you clever people and not one of those stupid ones. I won’t ask questions to clarify crucial details. And I will find myself increasingly…
Talking in jargon
This is another one that can help us to bond with each other and feel clever, but it comes at the cost of making others feel stupid. Every time you make assumptions about what jargon others will understand, or even worse, judge them for not knowing the same jargon as you, you make it less likely they’ll ask for clarification. It becomes more likely that gaps in communication will widen, and your product will not behave the way people expect or need it to behave.
And of course, not only do people avoid asking for clarification, they take active steps towards…
Hiding a lack of knowledge
Of course we all do this. We avoid “asking stupid questions.” We exaggerate what we know in job interviews and on CVs. We don’t admit it when we find ourselves in meetings where we have little or no idea what anyone is talking about. It’s just self preservation, right?
The more we work in environments where knowledge is considered to be a good indicator of our colleagues’ proficiency, the more likely we’re not being honest with each other about what we know. The last time I was in the market for a new job, I reached a point where if I saw companies imply that they possessed advanced techniques for filtering out only the very best and rejecting the rest, I automatically rejected them. Because in those kinds of environments, people will go to advanced lengths to prove they are indeed the best… which means never admitting any weakness and therefore covering up the unavoidable fact that they don’t know everything.
Are these people happy and confident? No. They are likely peddling furiously underwater and permanently paranoid that someone will find them out… for what? For being stupid? Well yes, that’s what it feels like. But what they’re really in danger of revealing is their own basic humanity.
And of course, the kind of culture I’ve described above, the kind I came to deliberately avoid when looking for good companies to work for, is that of…
Gatekeeping
This is where we decide that we are special, and large swathes of the rest of the profession are not, and all we need is to perfect our formulas for identifying the pearls and rejecting the swine. And what does it do? Yep. It makes us all feel stupid, terrified as we are that we will come up against these standards and fall short.
Solutions
So, what can we do to address these problematic behaviours?
The Lucky 10,000
https://xkcd.com/1053/
As described in xkcd’s excellent cartoon above, today’s lucky 10,000 will learn something exciting and new. And the rest of us have a choice: Embrace that journey and travel with them, or stand on the sidelines laughing at them for not having learnt it yet.
Making that decision to get excited about the learning our colleagues have yet to do, is about a lot more than individual choices in single moments. It’s about recognising that the range of knowledge in our industry is very wide. It’s wide, and it’s widening exponentially all the time. You could take two respected professionals with long successful careers, and find no overlap in their knowledge. Hell, you could find a busload of them with no overlap. It’s pointless to wring our hands over what people don’t know, and much more enlightening to embrace the learning of our colleagues and ourselves.
They don’t know as much as you think they do
The wheel of confusion
I use this series of graphics a lot in my talks. Here I show only four of the images, but it’s enough to illustrate the point: When you look at an internal message board where your colleagues are discussing a range of subjects, it’s tempting to think to yourself, “Oh my, all these people are so knowledgeable and confident on all of these subjects, and I don’t know about any of them.”
But of course each one of those people is only posting confidently about some of those topics, maybe only one each, and chances are you have posted knowledgeably yourself on at least one of them. And they are likely suffering the same worries and insecurities as you are, looking at each other — and you — and thinking how much less knowledgeable they are than everyone else.
You’re not doing anyone any favours — least of all yourself — when you assume people know more than they do. We can all benefit from being realistic about each other’s capabilities.
Be confident in your own ignorance
At the start of this piece, I talked about how I ran away from this industry in relief, glad to be laid off and determined never to return. But a few years later I found myself in need of a new job, and recognising that despite having not previously valued them, those twelve years of engineering experience were worth something to me.
I returned to this industry, but this time with a different approach. In the intervening years I’d been working for a lower salary as a high school maths teacher, so it wasn’t hard to return to technology at entry level, joining all the new computer science graduates and behaving as though as I was brand new. This gave me a new lease of life. I wasn’t pretending to know anything I didn’t, but I was excited and eager to learn. I let go of any shame and made a point of asking simple questions.
Of course those previous twelve years did count for something, and it wasn’t long before I found myself in senior leadership positions. And it was something of a revelation to me that the more open and confident I was about what I didn’t know, the more people respected me.
Not only did it help me to progress and learn quickly, it also helped those around me to do the same. When senior figures ask simple questions and show no shame about what they don’t know, everyone around them is empowered to do the same. Everyone feels less stupid, and their knowledge and competence increase more quickly as a result.
My 16-yr-old son is about to become self-employed. This is my attempt to explain why we need to keep receipts for expenses, and what impact it will have on the tax he pays.
Note that the UK tax allowance is currently £11,500 (see here), but I made it £10,000 to keep the sums simple.
Now that I’ve actually taught my son to tie his shoelaces, I’ve updated the original post here with the method we found successful: https://insimpleterms.blog/2018/03/15/how-to-tie-your-shoelaces/
I was just reminded of a trick I sometimes play on myself to avoid procrastination, which is surprisingly effective:
I tell myself I’m just going to open all the relevant files / documents, remind myself what the task is and get everything set up ready to start work. I tell myself that I’m not actually going to do the work, just get ready to do the work.
Invariably I get drawn in, and before I know it, I’m actually doing the work.
These are the notes (and some cat pictures) from the first iteration of this talk, which I’ve now delivered in a few places. There’s a recording of the talk here. You can see details of when I have delivered / will deliver it here.
Making people feel stupid: What does it mean?
People listen to what others say.
They overhear them judging people for not being clever enough or not knowing enough.
They internalise it. They worry that they will be next.
What’s wrong with me?
Maybe you’re quietly judging me already. Maybe you’re thinking, she’s probably not very clever and doesn’t like it when she gets exposed.
Maybe you’re right! I often think that about myself. But I have a maths degree, 18 years experience, I’m a tech lead with a major international consultancy, etc.
So, that was me imagining that you might judge me for being stupid. Maybe you did and maybe you didn’t. But the point is, I imagined that you would. Because I’m so used to people in tech judging each other for being stupid.
My story
I’ve always felt there was something wrong with me because I struggle to understand things unless they’re explained in simple concrete terms.
And yet I can do complexity.
I can build complex systems out of simple parts.
If anything, my flaw is a tendency towards too much complexity.
…which is why I deliberately break things down into simple parts.
…but I also forget complex terminology – I recall easier-to-remember equivalents instead.
I have missed out on jobs because people were bemused by my apparent lack of expertise.
I have been told in interviews that I wasn’t competent because I couldn’t respond to the kind of question that requires you to have memorised stuff.
The Impact:
Impact on the industry
Facts, Figures, Statistics:
There will be an estimated 1 million more computing jobs than applicants who can fill them by 2020. This figure was projected by Code.org, based on estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on job creation and separately, estimates of college graduation rates by the National Science Foundation.
Only 11% of employers (US) believe higher education is “very effective” in readying graduates to meet skills needed in their organisations.
Some 62% (US) said students were unprepared.
US: There are more than 500,000 open computing jobs nationwide, but less than 43,000 computer science students graduated into the workforce in 2016.
In 2016, the White House claimed the federal government alone needed an additional 10,000 IT and cybersecurity professionals.
Hands up if you feel like other people are cleverer / doing things better than you?
Impostor syndrome: “Somehow everybody has failed to notice how rubbish I am.”
I hate – am almost incapable of – playing the game where everything is obfuscated and translated into a language that only the elite can understand.
Ironically this means that my impostor syndrome is at least partially based around the fact that I don’t seem capable of doing the things that entrench everybody else’s impostor syndrome.
I can hit the ground running, but I keep forgetting.
I have to prove it to myself over and over again.
Scenario A: Meeting where people talk jargon & nobody understands
Me: Hi, sorry I’m late.
Them: It’s fine, we were just talking about the ARM processor.
Me: Ah right, yes of course.
Shit, ARM, I know I’ve heard of that before. ARM, um…
[some stuff I don’t hear cos I’m trying to remember what ARM stands for]
Me: “Look folks, I’m so sorry, but I’ve forgotten what ARM stands for?”
Them: “Articulated retention matriculation.”
Me: I have NO idea what that is. I’ll work it out as I go along.
Somebody else: Actually guys, I think we should be considering AMRM at this point.
Me: AMRM?
Reply: Articulated meta-retention matriculation.
[someone else, not me]
That’s a very good point! We definitely need to get meta at this juncture.
Oh God, I was only just following this, but now they’ve lost me. Meta? What does meta mean in this context? What does meta mean in any context? It’s one of those terms that always confuses me, I know that much.
Oh well, I said juncture. I love saying juncture. It’s the perfect word for situations like this.
[some stuff that Person2 misses cos they’re worrying about what meta means]
Etc
Diversity and Inclusion
People want to fit in.
Two effects:
They use jargon to create a shared identity.
They feel bad if they feel like an outsider.
People will leave, or not join in the first place, because they feel excluded.
This disproportionately affects under-represented groups.
“…men in STEM subject areas overestimate their own intelligence and credentials, underestimate the abilities of female colleagues, and that as a result, women themselves doubt their abilities — even when evidence says otherwise.”
Stereotype threat has been shown to reduce the performance of individuals who belong to negatively stereotyped groups.
If negative stereotypes are present regarding a specific group, group members are likely to become anxious about their performance, which may hinder their ability to perform at their maximum level. Importantly, the individual does not need to subscribe to the stereotype for it to be activated.
It is hypothesised that the mechanism through which anxiety (induced by the activation of the stereotype) decreases performance is by depleting working memory (especially the phonological aspects of the working memory system).
Talking in jargon
These insecurities cause people to increase the amount of jargon they use.
They want to prove how clever they are.
Their colleagues struggle to understand them, but they pretend they do, to avoid looking stupid…
Complex impenetrable language is what people deploy as a kind of force field
Weird vicious cycle: everybody obfuscates to protect themselves from potential exposure as somebody who doesn’t fully understand.
In the process they confuse everybody around them, who in turn become terrified that somebody is going to notice that they don’t fully understand what’s going on, so they join in the game, make everything they say sound complicated, and so the cycle continues.
There does come a point where you’ve been immersed in it for long enough that only some of it is confusing, and some/most of it makes sense.
That’s quite a kick!
You have to pay your dues to get to that point, and it feels good. You feel special.
So you pull the ladder up behind you.
You had to go up it, and so should everybody else.
You’re in the club now, and you want to savour that.
So you join with your new comrades in mocking those who still haven’t arrived.
You make no concessions in your language.
You’ve learnt what it means! It was hard! Why would you waste all that hard work and abandon your hard-won vocabulary by explaining things in simple terms?
Explaining things in simple terms takes twice as long anyway.
Giving the answer you think people want to hear:
The hairdresser asked me whether I had straighteners and I answered Yes. Why? Because I felt like it was the “right answer”. I don’t have straighteners. I’m never going to manage this labour-intensive haircut I’ve been given.
Scenario E: When talking jargon feels good
I felt all pleased with myself recently when I worked out how to join in with a hangouts conversation by using words like “discoverability” and “distinguishable”. I felt less insecure, and like I was now a proper grownup, a member of the club. But meanwhile there may well be somebody somewhere hearing nothing but “blah blah blah”…
Reasonable reasons
Is it sometimes ok?
“I can’t spend my whole time teaching people, I need people who can hit the ground running.”
Unreasonable reasons
Many people project a sheen of knowledge.
Many limit themselves by seeking to preserve knowledge once they find it.
People focus on their own experience – making themselves look good.
But when they look at someone else, they have a different agenda.
They don’t stop to wonder whether they have ever said anything “stupid” like that themselves – and if they did, WHY?
Or they remember it full well and don’t want anyone else to remember, so distract attention by joining in with the attackers.
We identify the things we CAN remember, then we fetishise them.
We push them over alternatives.
Not necessarily because they are better – just because we feel more comfortable there.
Definition of competent
What really impacts on you and your team?
Is it lack of knowledge?
What does it actually take to be good at your job?
What is the definition of competent?
What is the definition of intelligent?
“Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. What people call intelligence just boils down to curiosity.” – Aaron Schwartz.
People who are not techies are impacted too
Examples of support staff, stakeholders, non-technical people… being made to feel stupid.
My personal experience – the happy story
How I learnt to attack new knowledge outside my comfort zone.
The irony is that my career – and my enjoyment of it – has improved dramatically since I started admitting ignorance.
Why Empathy is so Important
“They only care about making themselves look good.”
This in itself is judgmental.
Think about how it feels like to be them!
You can find yourself alienating others without ever having conscious malicious intentions.
Other people know other stuff.
Two effects:
One: When they know stuff you don’t, you feel insecure.
Two: When you know stuff they don’t, you can get impatient.
Conclusions / Advice
Maybe you see me as an idealist. Or maybe I’m a pragmatist. Over the years I’ve paid attention to what works in life and what doesn’t. What makes people ill, what doesn’t. These are all practical hints for survival.
Does it actually matter how much people know? Industry constantly moving, people forget stuff.
Some of the most important moments in my career have been the times I’ve realised that my colleagues are also confused.
Eternal thanks to those that admitted it.
People are often scared to admit confusion.
I often don’t know what I’m doing.
The range of knowledge in our industry is VERY WIDE.
Don’t expect other people to know what you know, and vice versa.
People forget things they once knew.
If people don’t know enough, WHY is that? What’s deterring them?
What would happen if we changed the rules?
Focus on aptitude – recruitment becomes easier.
Encourage people to explore and experiment and learn WITHOUT RISK.
Stops people pushing less optimal solutions.
Make explicit statements to newcomers to your team, at start of meetings, etc – have a policy towards curiosity – keep repeating that simple questions are ok, that mistakes are ok, that if somebody doesn’t know something it’s in the interests of the whole team to help them learn. Plus, active encouragement to give feedback if these aims are not being met.
Tweet from Tim Post (@TinkerTim) re Stack Overflow:
“You can’t work on problems that you’re unwilling to admit. Wanting help often means being vulnerable enough to ask for it, and that’s where we are. Let’s keep making the internet better, without hurting people in the process.”
WE SHOULD ALL ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO ASK QUESTIONS.
The Stupid Manifesto
LET’S STOP MAKING EACH OTHER FEEL STUPID. INSTEAD, LET’S…
Have an explicit policy of curiosity towards all things
Encourage each other to shout out if we discourage curiosity
Ask what people NEED to know, not what they know
Never judge someone because their knowledge doesn’t match ours
Give our colleagues every opportunity to learn and explore WITHOUT RISK
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Acknowledge the broad range of knowledge in our industry
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Lead by example: Be honest when we’re confused
Focus on aptitude, not knowledge
Remember what it feels like when we are still learning
I’m currently helping my 15-yr-old son revise for his maths GCSE, and one topic is “finding the nth term of a quadratic sequence”. I’m an ex high school maths teacher, but I had forgotten how to do this. I couldn’t find decent complex examples on either of my favourite GCSE maths revision sites (Maths Genie and BBC Bitesize), and when you’re doing the more complex examples, a step-by-step guide is really useful.
So I’m placing my notes here in case they’re any use to anyone else.
You’re aiming for a result of an2 + bn + c, but easier examples might have a solution of an2 + b, and even easier ones will just be an2.
Simplest Example (an2):
Find the nth term for the following quadratic sequence: 3, 12, 27, 48, …
First calculate the gaps between the numbers – these are 9, 15 and 21.
Then find the gaps between the gaps – these are 6 and 6. Like this:
Take that 6 and divide it by 2 (it’s easy to forget to divide by 2!), to get 3. This tells you that your final result will contain the term 3n2.
I’ve already told you that this is a simple example – we’ve reached our solution: 3n2. But you should always check your results:
n
1
2
3
4
n2
1
4
9
16
3n2
3
12
27
48
Yup, that’s our original sequence.
More Complex Example (an2 + b):
Find the nth term for the following quadratic sequence: 1, 10, 25, 46, …
First calculate the gaps between the numbers – these are 9, 15 and 21.
Then find the gaps between the gaps – these are 6 and 6. Like this:
Take that 6 and divide it by 2 (it’s easy to forget to divide by 2!), to get 3. This tells you that your final result will contain the term 3n2.
Create a grid, which starts with your original sequence. Below that, add whatever rows you need to help you calculate 3n2.
Now, subtract 3n2 from the original sequence. So in the below grid, we subtract the fourth row from the first row, and that gives us a new sequence, which we have placed in the fifth row:
start
1
10
25
46
n
1
2
3
4
n2
1
4
9
16
3n2
3
12
27
48
start minus 3n2
-2
-2
-2
-2
We now have a row of constant numbers. This tells us we can reach a solution. It tells us to add -2 to 3n2, and that will be our solution: 3n2 – 2.
We can easily check this by adding up the fourth and fifth rows, which gives us the first row (the original sequence).
Most Complex Example (an2 + bn + c):
Find the nth term for the following quadratic sequence: -8, 2, 16, 34, …
First calculate the gaps between the numbers – these are 10, 14 and 18.
Then find the gaps between the gaps – these are 4 and 4. Like this:
Take that 4 and divide it by 2 (it’s easy to forget to divide by 2!), to get 2. This tells you that your final result will contain the term 2n2.
Create a grid, which starts with your original sequence. Below that, add whatever rows you need to help you calculate 2n2.
Now, subtract 2n2 from the original sequence. So in the below grid, we subtract the fourth row from the first row, and that gives us a new sequence, which we have placed in the fifth row:
start
-8
2
16
34
n
1
2
3
4
n2
1
4
9
16
2n2
2
8
18
32
start minus 2n2
-10
-6
-2
2
We don’t have a row of constant numbers yet, so we need to keep working. We need to look at the gaps between the numbers in our new sequence (in the bottom row of the table):
Now we have found a constant difference. This tells us that there will be a 4n in our answer. Note that this is because we have found a linear sequence. Note also that in the case of a linear sequence, we do NOT divide the number by 2.
So now we add some more rows to our grid. First we calculate 4n, and then we calculate 2n2 + 4n. Finally we subtract (2n2 + 4n) from our original sequence (subtract the 7th row from the first row):
start
-8
2
16
34
n
1
2
3
4
n2
1
4
9
16
2n2
2
8
18
32
start minus 2n2
-10
-6
-2
2
4n
4
8
12
16
2n2 + 4n
6
16
30
48
start minus (2n2 + 4n)
-14
-14
-14
-14
We now have a row of constant numbers. This tells us we can reach a solution. It tells us to add -14 to 2n2 + 4n, and that will be our solution: 2n2 + 4n – 14.
We can easily check this by adding up the seventh and eighth rows, which gives us the first row (the original sequence).
More worked complex examples
Note that in this next one there is a NEGATIVE difference between the terms of the sequence on row 5. This one can easily catch you out. Rather than thinking of the difference between the numbers, it helps to ask yourself, “how do I get from each term to the next one?” The answer in this case is, “subtract one”. This one can also look a little tricky because it contains fractional numbers, but you just follow the same rules as before:
Telling the Difference Between a Linear Sequence (an + b) and a Quadratic Sequence (an2 + bn + c).
When we calculate gaps between the numbers in the sequence, if the first level of gaps is constant, this means it is a linear sequence:
If the second layer of gaps is constant, it is a quadratic sequence:
Up until last week, my ten-year-old couldn’t quite tie a shoelace. These days you can easily get away with it, because apart from walking boots, most kids’ shoes don’t have laces. But his new school shoes have laces. So it’s time for us to get this sorted.
I enjoy teaching, but there is this thing called “Expert-Induced Amnesia“. It’s about that skill you’ve had for so long, you don’t know how you do it. When you try to teach it to other people, you struggle. As a parent, I’ve been starkly reminded of this in two examples: One is riding a bike, and the other is tying your shoelaces.
Teaching a child to ride a bike is extra hard, because you know at some point you’ll have to let go and hope for the best. And have the band-aid ready. But the shoelaces thing… maybe it’s just me, but wow, I found it hard to explain what I do and how I do it. My fingers just know. I don’t think about it. It’s muscle memory. And as soon as I try to slow it down and explain it, I can’t even remember what to do. I can only do it quickly, in a blur.
Also, learners need to practice repeatedly to get it right. Explaining this repeatedly can get wearing, particularly as most of the teaching opportunities come when you’re in a hurry to get out the door, and really you just want the shoes on the feet, with minimal fuss.
One of the hardest parts of teaching is patience. Resisting the urge to do it for them. “Oh, I’ll show you,” you say. You think you’re being helpful, but really you’re just being impatient. They need to do it for themselves.
That was a ridiculously long preamble.
The original version of this post was based on a series of diagrams I drew for my sons, to teach them how to tie their shoelaces the way I learnt. But then people showed me two videos which claim to teach revolutionary new shoelace-tying methods which are super-easy to learn.
A video my son and I failed to follow
The second video was supposedly even better than the first, and therefore my 10-yr-old son and I started there:
We played this video, rewound the crucial bit, played it again, rewound it…
Half an hour later, we were none the wiser. The crucial instruction, “pinch both of them and pull” is accompanied by a blur of activity, and no matter how much we watched it, we couldn’t make head or tail of it. My main problem was that if both hands were holding the bits of lace we were directed to hold, then the fingers got in each other’s way and it wasn’t possibly for both of them to pull. Even if we briefly let go with one hand, we got nowhere. It was frustrating as hell but in the end we gave up and had a look at this video instead:
A video my son and I got our heads around in the end
This one had a similar sticking point – “Feed them through each other’s loops”. Again, we had to rewind a few times and replay. Neither of us could work out which bit went through which bit. One problem is that both of these videos are shot from the point of view of a spectator, NOT from the view of the person tying the knot.
In the end I worked out what was going on and added this one extra instruction for myself and my son, and finally we both got it: After you have created the two loops, when you get to the “pull the loops through each other” part, you will have two loops facing you. At this point, one pair of fingers should grab the front of the other hand’s loop. The other hand should grab the back part of the opposite loop. Then each hand pulls the part it holds, through its own loop.
Oh, and that first video is describing the same technique. If you imagine yourself grabbing the front and the back of each loop and pulling it through, and if you turn the “zigzag” into two loops, you can make it work. That’s the only way I managed to make sense of it, but maybe my brain is just broken.
Some really good diagrams
This set of diagrams here is really good, and shows the knot from the knot-tyer’s perspective: https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm
My original diagrams
The original version of this post was based on the diagrams I drew below, and I have to confess I’m rather proud of my lovely diagrams. So I’m going to leave the rest of this post in place, despite the fact that I now think the Ian Knot (above) is a better technique. Oh well.
I forced myself to sit down and work it out, step by step. Then I drew diagrams and stuck them to a piece of card with laces attached. Then I gave it to my eldest son and left him to practice on his own. And now it’s my youngest son’s turn, so I dug the card out again (which is why it looks all tatty and old).
And here it is. Apologies for the tattiness. But just in case you’re teaching somebody to tie shoelaces, or learning to do it yourself… here are some diagrams that just might help.
(Also, apologies if you thought this was going to culminate in some fantastic metaphor, where the laces represent the meaning of life, the universe and everything. It really is a post about shoelaces.)
