Hold on to the redundant
*When Karl Benz created the first car with an internal combustion engine in 1886, engineers encountered the problem that such an engine could not generate the torque to accelerate from 0 – 60 kilometers per hour.
So, they came up with a solution called a gearbox. This system also requires a clutch mechanism to break (on command; with a pedal) contact between the engine and transmission.
Aircraft and ship engines do not have a gearbox. The torque generated by the engine system is converted directly into motion.
An example of sub-optimal constructions with a valid basis in the time of that time.
In recent years, we have been moving towards electric cars, with electric engines directly attached to the wheels, and torque is not a problem. Yet, it was people in my immediate circle who asked if it was an “automatic” when they saw how I operated that KIA EV6. No, it is not an automatic. This car is electric, so it doesn’t need a gearbox. That was a bit hard to swallow at times. How is that possible? A car without a gearbox…
People now must accept that gearbox and clutch mechanisms are examples of workarounds and they have become redundant. Just like a lot of (usually tailor-made) IT. Think of:
- Decentralized storage. For years, before the Internet was an obvious asset, it was common for a decentralized organization to have application instances by location or by LAN. Think of situations in which each country had its own CRM, or each municipality had its own population administration. You only notice how much pollution is created in this way if you want to return it to a central system, because a higher information value is achieved through better overall overviews.
- Duplicate registration for reporting purposes. Because it is “convenient” and because you can put together a registration system in an afternoon, you create shadow registrations. Instead of storing and maintaining the master data of a company or person in one system (because it saves weeks of work on a link). What do you do with a notice of removal or an obituary? If you do not know where which data is stored, you will get situations in which you still send congratulations to a deceased person or that you continue to do business with a company that has large payment arrears.
- One file per version. For about 10 years now, every serious word processing, presentation or spreadsheet program has had version control, so you don’t clutter up a search index with dozens of versions of semi-finished products, drafts, and previous versions. With one file you have one URL, a cleaner search index, and if you still want to know what it looked like 20 versions earlier, you use the right mouse button.
Challenge people! As a consultant you can follow the easy way and please everyone by recreating a previous solution, but I think it is at least a moral obligation to suggest improvements. The KIA dealer in Valkenswaard did not try to sell me a gearbox for my KIA EV6 when my wife asked where the gear lever was.
Working might be a workaround anyway
As a follower of manual philosophy (I think with my hands), I am inclined to ask myself this question. Gemini steers me in this direction:
- If we look at the evolution of humanity, one can indeed argue that “work” (in the sense of wage labor or physical exertion for survival) is a gigantic workaround for our biological needs.
- In nature, an organism must expend energy to obtain energy (hunting, gathering). We have professionalized that system through the discovery and application of agriculture and livestock farming. As a workaround, we sit in an office for 40 hours a week to collect money (exchangeable credit) which we then exchange for those primary needs. It is an abstract detour to avoid having to run after a deer with a spear ourselves.
- Work as a workaround for “unfinished” technology; Much of what we call “work” today is actually filling the gaps that mechanization or automation has not yet closed. Monday used to be laundry day, and we took into account the enormous amount of work Mother had to handle when using textiles. Now: The washing machine negated that workaround. Much administrative or logistical work is simply a temporary solution until algorithms or robots have removed process errors from the system. In that sense, an employee is often the “glue” between two imperfect systems.
Humans are biologically programmed to solve problems and be useful. As soon as our basic needs are met, we often create new work to avoid boredom or a lack of purpose. Here, work becomes a workaround for lethargy and emptiness. We invent goals, KPIs, and projects to fill the day with a sense of progress.
Even if we were to produce enough for everyone with minimal effort, our economic system forces us to keep using the workaround to justify the distribution of resources.
“We are a species that has become so good at the workaround of labor, that we’ve forgotten how to survive without the struggle.”