Tech is the easy bit. People are hard.

You think getting technology to work is hard? You know what's REALLY hard? Getting people to change.

Tech is a closed problem. You know the solution exists, you just have to find it.
Technology has a defined working state: you can look it up, it is unanambiguous. There are clearly defined and readily learnt ways to fix it and you can prove when you have achieved it.

None of this is true about people's attitudes, behaviours, beliefs, practices, and culture. People are an open problem: you don't even know that a solution exists.

People will actively resist change, even act malevolently against change. They will disengage, hide, or run away. Even when they get in board, they'll go their own way or get it wrong. They get bor3d, confused it irritable. Or zealous, overenthusiastic, or crazy.

Humans are the most infuriating, confusing, unpredictable complex system of all. I love working with them. I'll never go back to working in technology.

.

See also
http://www.itskeptic.org/transformational-technologies-are-small-view

some people get snobby about tech http://www.itskeptic.org/content/only-developers-understand-devops

Bridget Kronhaut said it best https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3185224

Syndicate content