Going IT Alone…

“The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.” — Bertrand Russel

While working on an client-friend’s computer, I learned that they were going to take their first trip to Europe. Since they knew I had been in the Army and was stationed in Germany at the end of the Cold War (yes, kiddies, I’m that old), they asked about my European experiences.

I told them that I liked Germany and France fairly well (the Germans are control freaks except when it comes to driving too fast and drinking too much. And the French can be food, wine and clothing snobs…but they are snobs to everyone not native born so don’t take offense.)

I told them, the country, I liked best was the Netherlands (Holland in American). I told her the Dutch understand that in the long run basic human nature was an unstoppable force that they often took advantage of. The Dutch have always been big fans to letting people go their own way, while getting a cut of the action.

While the Dutch didn’t invent state sponsored piracy (privateers), They did learn very quickly how efficiently organized privateers could add to a poor country’s bottom line.

It’s the Dutch who have allowed the open legalization and use of dope smoking and prostitution (in limited areas). All state sponsored, monitored and heavily taxed.

The Dutch at first glance seem very laid-back and very forgiving.

But during my first trip to Amsterdam, I noticed that all the older houses  had very narrow frontages. In fact the guide pointed out one house that was exactly one doorway width wide. But it went up 4 stories and went back one block deep!

Seems sometime in the past some bright city official starting taxing people on “wide” their houses were. So in retaliation, townspeople started building things narrower and narrower, until you get what I saw; a one door-wide sliver of a house. This also lead to the invention of some the steepest stairways I have ever seen.

But it’s the Dutch’s willingness to try any new “workaround” (an alternative method that gives one the desired results without actually solving the problem) that I find so cool.

Americans used to invent and use “workarounds” all the time. We still do in small settings but as a nation we have fallen back on the “better safe than sorry” notion, especially in the workplace.

Oops, better not say that…the HR will hear about and sit you down for a nice, boring speech on being politically correct. Gosh, better be careful of what jokes you tell someone; even if the person  you tell is okay with  it, if your conversation is overheard by someone with big ears and a sensitive nature then you can tagged with being un-PC.

Do what you are told exactly no more , no less (let the boss micro-manage) because if you mess up and make a mistake, then you will be in the hot seat or worst.

But a soloist, you don’t have that luxury. If I mess up, I have to fess up and make it right, if I can. No more hiding behind (but “they” didn’t tell me to do all that…!)

My clients expect me to “know” or at least to find out and still do “all that” under budget and on time. They may know what they want but as the “expert” it’s up to me to produce the “how-to-do-it” bits.

It’s my job to advise clients that making their new website “narrower” or whatever will be cost-saving but it’s up to me to make that design will work in the long term.

So off comes the dunce-cap and on goes my propeller hat (the Dutch invented windmills didn’t they?) and out comes my latest workaround.