“We need real effort! Our daily busywork won’t get us where we want to go.”
(Richard Seidl)
That applies to the climate crisis as much as to legacy software. In software projects, real effort means something concrete: paying down technical debt, deleting old code, streamlining processes.
What Are We Actually Doing?
Things are uncomfortable right now. Climate. Society. Politics. Projects. There’s a rough wind blowing. After years of prosperity and security, this: climate crisis, polarization, fake news, war, inflation, AI, stagnating companies. It happens on a large scale and a small one. The sins of the past (technical debt, for one!) are catching up with us, from the climate crisis to legacy software. We could have done a lot of things better. We didn’t.
Thinking Trap 1: The Wrong Frame of Reference, in Time and Place
Is the world going to hell? You could think so. I don’t. Human history has always had serious threats and crises, and they were overcome.
In my view, we’re “looking” at it the wrong way. We look at our own lifetime, which for most of us has probably been shaped by growth, peace, prosperity and security. And we assumed it would just carry on like that. The past offers no evidence for that. What it does show is that crises kept coming. People have always lived in and with uncertainty: first God throws us out of paradise, later come the plague, the Spanish flu, wars, HIV, the Great Depression, the 2007 financial crisis, 9/11 and COVID. And? Humanity survived. The crises were dealt with. Populism, campaigns, globalization, instant access to news from around the world and our appetite for bad news (bad news sells) filter what we perceive and steer where our attention goes. The result is a dramaturgy that makes the world look worse than it is. That we fall for these distortions of reality could actually give us courage. Because we do have the skills to solve problems and the energy to shape how things turn out. If we want to. And that’s where the next problem lies.
Thinking Trap 2: Busyness and Stress vs. Real Effort
What every area needs now is real effort. The sweaty kind. All in. Can you feel the resistance building already? The shallow breathing, the urge to justify yourself: I’ve already got so much on my plate! What else do you want? And why me? I’m stressed enough as it is …
But what are we actually doing all day? Honestly? A craftsman used to make a piece of work. Then it was finished, and it was useful to the buyer (and a pleasure). Today, we spend only a fraction of our time on productive work with a purpose. Instead, we sit in meetings, push responsibility, pixels or words back and forth, procrastinate on social media, fill out forms for admin and bureaucracy, and so we’re busy day in, day out. And stressed. Yes, it’s tiring too, but mostly because it’s unsatisfying. With all due respect: what are we doing here?
Everyone knows the good feeling when a focused, pragmatic effort reaches its goal, or when a bit of experimenting suddenly solves a problem. That sense of satisfaction at having gotten something done. And then it doesn’t matter whether it took four days or five. But caught in a trance of crisis, information overload and bureaucracy, nobody goes the “extra mile” anymore.
What Does This Have to Do with Me?
As I said: what holds for the big picture holds for the small one. Of course we should all be saving the world, but we can at least start with our own projects and companies. Especially in the software industry, it’s worth asking: What do users really need? Does this feature contribute anything at all? What about wasted resources? Sustainability? Purpose? Value?
These questions take effort. So does the road to answering them. That’s just how it is. But they also make sense, and they give meaning. Pushing them aside, on the other hand, only makes the mountain of “technical debt” grow. Better to break old habits, finally delete old code for real, refactor, and slim down processes and content. And then enjoy the good feeling of having gotten something done.
With that in mind: let’s get to work!
