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Peeing in the Soup
This blog is my personal opinion. No one has to agree, no one has to like it,
There are many things I do not understand.
One thing which is a constant source of amazement to me is the way people react to structure. It should be noted that I am a great believer in structure. Structure is what allows a building to be customized, structure is what allows a system to be tuned, and structure is the base underlying method of everything. Or, in a more flippant form:
Order is what you make of it.
There are in my mind two relevant types of order; defined and inferred. Defined order has a set of rules and guidelines and circumstances that are available for all to review. Defined order can feel overbearing and inelastic and people can and do view the same defined order from different viewpoints. Some people will see defined order in a binary fashion in a good way, some will see defined order as guidelines, and some will see defined order in a binary fashion in a bad way. Defined order is normally the process of planning and intent.
Inferred order is normally based off of a shared understanding and in most cases is the result of a small group of people deciding to collaborate on something. There is a loose structure where people contribute what they can, freely exchange information, and no single person is in charge and all decisions and focus are a result of organic discussions and migrating priorities.
In my experience while defined order can be scaled down, inferred order cannot be scaled up; therefore inferred order is under constant pressure to become defined order, especially when new people enter a group.
Think about a collaborative effort you had with friends and how it worked and how personality and competency dynamics reach a state of equilibrium. Now think of what happened when a new person entered the group and immediately began overlapping efforts and focus. Was it all sunshine and roses or did folks get their feelings hurt and get angry and trade accusations and did they suddenly find themselves cut out from something they had been doing?
Because of this, I trend toward defined structure in nearly everything I do, even if it is only: "I will do this, I am not interested in anything else, are we in agreement this is my responsibility?" After all, I use defined structure mainly to understand my responsibilities, not to force other people to do things as I have zero interest in running the life of anyone else and even less in having anyone run mine.
So while I prefer defined structure for myself, I do understand that some prefer inferred structure and do not disparage it or those who prefer it. It does not work well for me but it is not inherently bad or wrong or misguided, it merely does not work well for me.
But there is another type of order that baffles me to no end and of which I have concluded is bad, wrong, misguided, and stupid. Before I go further it is important to understand how I use the word stupid. Imagine the absolute worst judgment you levy against an action or attitude. That is how I use the word stupid. It is why I rarely call people stupid though may freely detail their actions as stupid.
The type of order that I view as stupid is whim based order. Whim based order hides under many names but follows three main characteristics:
Whim based order can be implemented by new leaders of a group or organisation and will run its course until enough people involved realise the inherent stupidity or the group or organisation fails and dissolves. We see this in the corporate world all the time and while tragic, is not the real issue with whim based order because in those circumstances the results are verifiable.
The place whim based order truly acts as a contagion is when it is practiced by people who represent themselves as members of a community but whose only participation is through disparaging that community. They always have a simple solution to any issue, it never makes any sense what-so-ever, but they shout it loudly and it involves blame. They pretend authority where they have none and they refuse to participate in any decision making process or day-to-day maintenance and then disparage those who do.
And, invariably, some people fall for the stupidity and join it and do their level best to exclude anyone they do not like, at the moment, from the community they have infected. That "at the moment" is important because the person who is hailed one moment may be hated the next, based on the whim.
I mistrust whims. I mistrust whim based order even more, and I believe those who incite it are idiots.
If you are a member of a community and you see something you do not like, help solve the problem by getting involved in any way outside of whim based order because while I do love soup, urine will not make it taste any better,
Someone may decide this blog post is a personal attack against them. As this is beyond my control it is beyond my concern.
There are many things I do not understand.
One thing which is a constant source of amazement to me is the way people react to structure. It should be noted that I am a great believer in structure. Structure is what allows a building to be customized, structure is what allows a system to be tuned, and structure is the base underlying method of everything. Or, in a more flippant form:
Order is what you make of it.
There are in my mind two relevant types of order; defined and inferred. Defined order has a set of rules and guidelines and circumstances that are available for all to review. Defined order can feel overbearing and inelastic and people can and do view the same defined order from different viewpoints. Some people will see defined order in a binary fashion in a good way, some will see defined order as guidelines, and some will see defined order in a binary fashion in a bad way. Defined order is normally the process of planning and intent.
Inferred order is normally based off of a shared understanding and in most cases is the result of a small group of people deciding to collaborate on something. There is a loose structure where people contribute what they can, freely exchange information, and no single person is in charge and all decisions and focus are a result of organic discussions and migrating priorities.
In my experience while defined order can be scaled down, inferred order cannot be scaled up; therefore inferred order is under constant pressure to become defined order, especially when new people enter a group.
Think about a collaborative effort you had with friends and how it worked and how personality and competency dynamics reach a state of equilibrium. Now think of what happened when a new person entered the group and immediately began overlapping efforts and focus. Was it all sunshine and roses or did folks get their feelings hurt and get angry and trade accusations and did they suddenly find themselves cut out from something they had been doing?
Because of this, I trend toward defined structure in nearly everything I do, even if it is only: "I will do this, I am not interested in anything else, are we in agreement this is my responsibility?" After all, I use defined structure mainly to understand my responsibilities, not to force other people to do things as I have zero interest in running the life of anyone else and even less in having anyone run mine.
So while I prefer defined structure for myself, I do understand that some prefer inferred structure and do not disparage it or those who prefer it. It does not work well for me but it is not inherently bad or wrong or misguided, it merely does not work well for me.
But there is another type of order that baffles me to no end and of which I have concluded is bad, wrong, misguided, and stupid. Before I go further it is important to understand how I use the word stupid. Imagine the absolute worst judgment you levy against an action or attitude. That is how I use the word stupid. It is why I rarely call people stupid though may freely detail their actions as stupid.
The type of order that I view as stupid is whim based order. Whim based order hides under many names but follows three main characteristics:
- It has no logical basis
- It considers no circumstances beyond the present moment
- It is self contradictory
Whim based order can be implemented by new leaders of a group or organisation and will run its course until enough people involved realise the inherent stupidity or the group or organisation fails and dissolves. We see this in the corporate world all the time and while tragic, is not the real issue with whim based order because in those circumstances the results are verifiable.
The place whim based order truly acts as a contagion is when it is practiced by people who represent themselves as members of a community but whose only participation is through disparaging that community. They always have a simple solution to any issue, it never makes any sense what-so-ever, but they shout it loudly and it involves blame. They pretend authority where they have none and they refuse to participate in any decision making process or day-to-day maintenance and then disparage those who do.
And, invariably, some people fall for the stupidity and join it and do their level best to exclude anyone they do not like, at the moment, from the community they have infected. That "at the moment" is important because the person who is hailed one moment may be hated the next, based on the whim.
I mistrust whims. I mistrust whim based order even more, and I believe those who incite it are idiots.
If you are a member of a community and you see something you do not like, help solve the problem by getting involved in any way outside of whim based order because while I do love soup, urine will not make it taste any better,
Someone may decide this blog post is a personal attack against them. As this is beyond my control it is beyond my concern.