Programming in the Real World

Psychologists might label programming a delusional sport. Programmers sweat over projects that lead to their unemployment when complete. Programmers invent good ideas that are implemented by their successors. When 3 years is considered long-term employment, programmers live in a fantasy world of loyalty, longevity and usefulness, a world that exists in few businesses today.

Programmers are not the only people living in a fantasy world. I recently spoke with a boss who wasn't getting productivity out of his developers. I asked him about his leadership strategy. He created micro-managed project to control his expenditures. He isolated the developers so they couldn't work together. He wouldn't let the developers work with end-users. He warned the developers that the company could get out of software at any time. He held no employee evaluations and opted to dump staff without warning. All this, he believed, should have improved productivity.

I asked him if he read any books on team building or IT management. "I'm the boss," he replied. "I don't have time to read."

Consider some of society's typical qualities for leaders:

• They must be in control
• They must have all the answers
• They must be always be on the offensive
• They must not form relationships
• They must think they are the center of the world

A friend of mine has a two year old child. The child cries loudly when he is not in control. The child misbehaves when no one is paying attention to him. The child thinks he is in control of the household. Come to think of it, the child doesn't have time to read either--it is too busy playing in his imaginary world.

If programmers long for a world where loyalty and contribution are rewarded, it's managers who created the fantasy world where these things don't exist. A boss who acts like a two year old is a boss who doesn't live in reality. A boss that believes that he (or she) has all the answers is a boss who has no reason to learn. A boss who is in control is someone who cannot delegate responsibility. A boss who cannot form relationships is a boss who cannot communicate with his team. How can a person be strong if they are pathological and paranoid? It's better to be a hero in the real world than a superhero in your imagination.

Software developers cannot afford to get caught up in illusionary goals, lurking fears or make-believe users. To be an effective developer, you have to build your software according to the facts. Open source development, in particular, requires cooperation and communication, relationships and humility, logic and hope. You have to believe the best of people, to delegate and to share to make a project work. This kind of teammanship can only be accomplished by working in reality.

Managers could learn a thing or two from open source developers.

In his book Slack, consultant Tom DeMarco talks about Culture of Fear companies where stress is a status measure, fear is used as a motivator and obsession with optimization and control leads to wasted money and an crippled operation. The Culture of Fear is especially harmful to programmers who need to focus on completing assignments, not worrying about politics and paychecks.

As for the boss I was speaking to? He doesn't understand why his policy of isolation, intimidation and threats hasn't increased software productivity. He believes that it's the programmers that are not living in real world. He's right: the programmers are living in his imaginary world.

Talk back on the Linux Cafe.

April 20, 2005