Influence

[swatts]

What-ho my beauties,

Sorry I have been quiet - GDevCon, CTI and TMiLV have been sucking up all my time outside of work.

I've made a bit of a career about being a contrarian, and yet I'm still here, still making systems..

So is being contrary right? Does the mainstream have any value at all if you can be successful being contrary in this engineering world.

Here's some thoughts.....

I hate all the talk of Leaders and Influencers, it pre-supposes that people need to be Led and Influenced. I strongly favour democracy and collaboration.

Also watching the AI nonsense play out and it has become clear to me that the primary concern of technology influencers may not be to our benefit. But we feel pressure to come on board using techniques from FOMO to bullying. You can observe this even at the corporate level...

I'm still waiting for the tech industry company to loudly proclaim "Nah! AI has absolutely no benefit to our product range". And that is because the bully pulpit of Wall Street will punish you for it. People who don't understand AI understand that AI=$$.

The influencers claim... (the same ones who push Web3, metaverse etc etc)

AI will remove 90% of coding jobs

AI will solve physics

AI will solve medicine

AI will solve driving (I really want my car being used as taxi when I sleep, have these tech-broligarchs ever met a human before!)

Always on a 2 year rolling time-line.

The MBAs who make this stupid statements 

A) Earn money based on their exaggerated claims, backed by credulous tech journalists.

B) Have never programmed a complex system in their lives.

And yet look at their influence....

I could (and from a business perspective probably should) use my influence. So here goes...

• Use whatever tools and techniques to make things that you want.
• Modify designs, design techniques and processes to make things easier, better.
• Work hard, enjoy working hard and make your customer happy.
• If you don't like something, change it.

Someone using the term "best" as in "best-practice" is trying to influence you, it's a red-flag. I'm much keener on "better", it means you haven't arrived and there is room for discussion.

We are engineers, we can test if something is better, we don't need to accept the promises of Influencers.

Go to events, meet your peers, learn ... What you accept and reject is up to you.

Plot, Collaborate, Share.

Be assertive with yourself and others.

Understand history...

There are no silver-bullets.

Consider yourselves influenced

I want to interview you in Stuttgart, tell me all about your favourite LabVIEW project.

Lots of love

[joerg.hampel]

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@swatts wrote:

Someone using the term "best" as in "best-practice" is trying to influence you, it's a red-flag. I'm much keener on "better", it means you haven't arrived and there is room for discussion.

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Amen. 

[joerg.hampel]

I’m not sure you are (or should be, or even want to be) influential in the popular sense of the word. 

But charismatic? Hell yes. Use that 😎

[Intaris]

The thing with influencers and leaders.....

The thing with social media is that anyone who SELF-APPLIES (unironically) any of these terms can be completely removed from the pool of people who may actually potentially fit the bill. There are many such terms. All of them serve as fantastic filters when observed as being self-applied.

I'm also very much aligned with the contrarian point of view (is that an oxymoron?). But of course, it all depends on what you're facing. As i grow old, I find it incredibly valuable to take the position of contrarian with one's self. The ability to put yourself into an opposing position and try to make sense of it will generally help filter out some brain burps, helps better actually understand your own point of view and ultimately create better fundamental understandings of things. And on the journey, you'll most likely be surprised to find some significant common-ground with people who occupy polar opposite positions on some topics.

So Steve, instead of being an "influencer", how about "Conduit of Contrariness" instead.

[joerg.hampel]

Forgot to leave this here re. “Best vs better”:

https://simonsinek.com/books/the-infinite-game/

[Intaris]

Just came across this bit in an Alan Watts audio. A quote (possibly paraphrased) from Lao Tzu:

"A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, when his aim fulfilled, they will say: We did it ourselves"

"True Virtue does not claim itself virtuous, and is therefore virtuous. False Virtue cannot let go of the appearance of virtue and is therefore not virtuous."

[richardscheff]

I know this is off topic.  The term "best" essentially means "all things are equal" without an identifiable competitor.   https://www.asa.org.uk/advice-online/comparisons-identifiable-competitors.html

Keep that in mind when you see an ad.

With regard to your column.  It is our responsibility to understand the customer's need and then provide feedback towards that goal.  Some customer's will have difficulty with clearly defining their needs because they don't know them.  And they think bigger is always better, or new is always better.   And in those situations we have to push harder to help them clarify their goal.  And teach them that their request of cheaper does not always mean cheaper.  Maintenance  costs are an expense that can not be overlooked.  Capability and tradeoffs all have to be evaluated to determine goals; which is done well by people with experience that have seen a lifetime of mistakes.