Our shared systems

"... the flawless sequence of decisions and outcomes that will put us where we think we want to be."

Our shared systems

I'm going to begin by shamelessly pulling from this week's Relay post (thanks to Ian for the article). Charles C. Mann wrote a great piece on the systems that underpin all of our lives and how the majority of us forget to appreciate their complexity and reliability, even if they are imperfect. I particularly enjoyed this section:

"Americans may fight over red and blue, but everyone benefits in the same way from the electric grid. Water troubles and food contamination are afflictions for rich and poor alike. These systems are powerful reminders of our common purpose as a society — a source of inspiration when one seems badly needed."

It’s easy to forget in the torrent of daily life. Each individual's experience feels like the whole world to them and it can be so difficult to maintain the perspective Mann describes. In the midst of our woes, appreciating that water comes out of the tap when we turn it on isn’t instinctive.

We know these systems aren't perfect. Water mains break. Food gets contaminated. The power does go out. We accept that imperfection, understanding no system is perfect and failure happens. No one can plan for everything or cover every edge case.

Yet in planning and executing our own lives, we move along trying to figure it all out at once. We chase the exact right plan—the just right job that will make everything in our lives perfect, the right degree to get us that job, the flawless sequence of decisions and outcomes that will put us where we think we want to be.

The best simple system for now

In systems design, there is a never ending battle of tradeoffs. Designing near-perfect, fault-tolerant systems requires time and resources. The benefit to this approach is hopefully less issues down the road. Your payment for the extra time spent planning. Alternatively, getting a system out the door quickly that works right now has its own advantages, too. You have a working system now, but you may encounter future scenarios that weren’t considered in the shorter planning phase.

In his article, Dan North offers a middle ground. His concept of the best simple system for now attempts to address this problem by offering an approach that is aimed at designing the most apt, best system for the requirements in the moment. Not spending excess time planning for something that may be needed down the line, and not skimping on what is needed right now. To apply North's ideas to Mann's, if our predecessors had tried to design an absolutely perfect electrical grid, we might have never gotten one at all.

"The perfectionism is very dangerous. Because of course if your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything."

• David Foster Wallace

I regret the time I've lost pouring over whether I'm studying the right thing, reading the right book, listening to the right podcast. If I have chosen the right path in life at all? So much so that I know I have lost out on things that are good in my pursuit of finding the perfect choice.

While being thorough is a virtue, the pursuit of finding the absolutely right solution to a problem can impinge on solving it. Or maybe in the end you don’t solve it at all, but at least you’ve moved from where you were to where you ended up. Often, value is gained from just starting.

I can’t tell you the number of unwritten blog posts and never started programming projects that have been lost to my indecision. I forget that as long as I’m doing something that is worthwhile to me, the outcome isn’t the point. Whether or not anyone uses the project or reads the post doesn’t matter. It matters that I’m moving, step by step, and hopefully gaining insight and knowledge along the way.

In the dregs of every day life the past few weeks I've found it helpful to remember these thoughts from Mann and North. Good things aren't born of planning for every thing up front. They form as action is taken. As John gall puts it:

"A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system."

Or, put another way: A rich, full life is made up of many days and nights attempting to stay on the path that seems to head in the right direction.

Thanks for reading—have a great week.

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