Of Dad, and Obi-Wan, and shaky pergolas
My Dad is very handy. There's little he can't build, repair, or patch together soundly enough to last another few months until he's sold it. His father was a handyman by trade, but for Dad, fixing things was usually squeezed into his narrow allotment of leisure time after a hard week at work. He held down a full-time job while also repairing everything from the family car to the microwave.
Dad didn't teach me much because he didn't have all day to do it, and showing me how to do things slowed him down. I was also hopeless — a danger to myself with anything more complicated than a wrench — and when that became clear early on, my Dad figured he'd be wasting more time teaching me things I was only ever going to learn slowly, if at all.
That meant Dad did everything, was always short of leisure time, and was often annoyed with his layabout teenage son, clearly bright but unable to help repair the washing machine/build the pergola/weld the car back together.
Which brings me to a Tradesman Rule of Product Development: share your work with someone less talented than you.
My Dad's still going strong, but if the washing machine had electrocuted him, the pergola fallen on him, or the welding gas sent him up in flames, there would have been no-one left to do the next job around the house.
I see that happen in early-stage tech startups all the time.
We focus on getting the highest-possible output out of our best developers, giving them free reign, minimal oversight and maximum responsibility for their area of the product.
If that team member is then hit by a poorly-welded car towing a trailer with a shaky pergola on the back, there's nobody to carry on after the accident.
I'm not a believer in strict pair programming, but I am a believer in always training your replacement. In case you get run down by a pergola.
As I always say: if in doubt, turn to Star Wars. It was not for nothing that Jedi were accompanied by a Padowan; a young apprentice.
Yoda knew what he was doing when he sent Qui-gon out with Obi Wan — he knew Qui-gon would rush into battle with Darth Maul, would take a light sabre in the guts, would need the O-Dude to finish the job he'd started.
Perhaps Yoda would have put it this way: "Do, you may. Train another, you must. And the pergola, beware of, always."
