The confluence of Mind and Matter - the creative spark of software

Isidor Isaac Rabi, a nuclear scientist and a Nobel Prize winner for physics in 1934, as a student was sent by his mentor Leo Szilard to talk to Enrico Fermi at his home about the possibility of using nuclear fission to split neutrons. Fermi replied with a caustic “Nuts!!!” it’s a Remote and risky possibility with chances of less than ten percent…” Leo Szilard never forgot Rabi’s quiet reply to this dismissal by the Great Fermi: “Ten percent is not a remote or risky possibility if we may die of it….” Rabi went on to assist in splitting the atom.

                                                                                                                   From Leo Szilard’s papers....

“There is hardly anything for me to do in office, I reach my desk at 9 A.M sharp, work on a few bugs, or develop a minuscule part of a code for some time, attend conference calls at regular intervals, make my presence felt with a few perfunctory and reasonably intelligent remarks, take regular breaks; and at the stroke of five, check out for the day and head home. I don't have to do anything new, challenging or bring in fresh perspectives to my work.. My boss is happy with my productivity and I am happy with this risk free software job and my role in this huge organization…” With this remark, the young group, in the adjacent table dipped into their beers and let out a loud round of laughter. It was a beautiful afternoon in Atlanta, temperature around 75 F, subdued sunshine adding that little bit of warmth to an otherwise chill crispness in the air. I was with my laptop working on my book, sitting outside a French restaurant eating a sandwich, when this conversation drifted to my ears. Coincidentally, I was writing about mediocrity, and when I heard these words, I stopped typing and started reflecting…

What this young man said smacked of truth. There is no doubt about it. One of the adverse effects of industrialization is the compartmentalization, specialization of work into indivisible discrete units, smothering creativity in the majority, and delegating it to a handful- who by some stroke of luck happen to possess the necessary genius to innovate. It has happened with every major industry and professional work over the last two hundred years. In our generation, we have seen it happen to software as well. The relatively young history of computers is replete with episodes, personalities, products that oozed with passion and individual excellence. Every little step from large sized processing machines to microcomputers, synergy between Boolean algebra and circuit boards, transition from 16 bit processing to 32 bit, allocation of memory and its contiguity, evolution from frozen assembly board instructions to microcode and then to High level programming languages, the startling discovery of backward compatibility for better customer experience, the revolutionary idea of decoupling hardware from software and kicking off unprecedented race to write sophisticated, humanely decipherable instructions, the overwhelming risks of data, its security and ingenious ways of protecting - all of these were great leaps in understanding made possible by engineers who looked upon the computer machine and its possibilities with awe stuck wonder and childlike passion, obstinacy and creative madness. If one cares to read the history of software, one would find scattered across pages, the names and lives of numerous individuals, whose faces are forgotten; but their contribution, as a part of large and small organizations have laid the platform for this revolutionary phenomena of Information technology and its widespread use today. Their individual dream, work, commitment to create something new - despite low pay, incredible challenges, unhealthy work places, unsympathetic managers, troubles personal lives, - to make that paradigm shift from the world of electricity to programmable machines- is a saga that most youngsters have not been exposed to at all. The spark of creativity is no more visible in the world of software. In thirty years of growth, this industry has matured to such an extent, that it does not need passion any more. All that it needs is a mediocre set of minds that can do an assigned job over and over again with unswerving precision. Individuals do not feel the need, or the urge to allow their flights of imagination to take shape, because they really do not know what is that they are developing or creating. They are like the archetypal assembly production system where each of them turn a screw and wait for the next batch for repetition. The segmentation of such a creative field as software into design, architecture, development, testing, quality assurance and a myriad other pieces, has robbed this fascinating field of its joy - orgasmic pleasure of creation. There are no more individuals applying their thought and instinct to solving or discovering something new; but merely “resources” allocated to a project to complete a predefined task with documented processes in place. But I guess, that is price we pay when a scientific art gets commoditized and becomes an “industry” driving social, economic and personal behavior.

When youngsters are inducted into software companies, rarely do we set the bars of excellence for them in terms of original thinking, except for a very few companies (Google comes to mind...) It merely boils down to a rigmarole of static process and unbendable rules that does not set the right tone for an intellectually stimulating endeavor. Many years, I used to teach a small organization, whose CEO was a tech whiz. He recruited people only when he sensed a spark of madness in them. His induction programs were fifteen minute affairs. He would briefly speak about market opportunities for ten minutes and then hand out a Tracy Kidder’s marvelous book “The soul of a new Machine” to each new recruit, and tell them “Read this book, absorb its feel and drive – this is the only induction I can give you… if you can bring a quarter of the madness, intensity and purpose the protagonists in this book bring to their task, you will not only be very useful to my organization, but also grow into a pure breed of satisfied software geeks..”

I wonder how many of us working in the software industry have read this book? It was published in 1981, and went on to win the Pulitzer award and the national book award for Non-fiction that year. What is this book about? The late 1970’s were a phenomenally interesting time in software with IBM ruling the roost, and fifty to hundred other odd companies working with zeal to achieve breakthroughs in a nascent, vibrant computer market. Data general, a New England Massachusetts, based company was a pioneer in innovation. Their NOVA range of 16 bit computing machines were bestsellers at that point. The Management of Data general, led by the legendary De Castro then decided to build a 32 bit machine, with backward compatibility and clear segregation between inner software and outer hardware. The stage was ready when two teams within the organization; one based out their state of the art facility in North Carolina, the other working out the basement of their old office - set out to build such a machine in record time. Tracy kidder in this phenomenal book, chronicles the travails, joys, pain, humiliations, brilliance, tenacity and singular devotion of the team working in the basement, almost fifteen hours a day for a year, to build what came to be known as “Eagle” project. Led by eccentric Tom West, architected by mercurial Wallach, developed by brooding Alsing and his team of new kids of the block - their baptism through fire, the intangible, unwritten trust that they expected to reciprocate, the nerve wracking pressure of creativity with a deadline looming, the out of the box thinking that defied all sensible rules of management – is captured with all the vivid details that makes a racy novel. The book and its subject is a study in the art of sustained creativity. It informs us on radical discoveries and innovations (that all of us take so much for granted...), and the maniacal drive and ambition that made them possible. It is not a story of a few leaders, but a story of an entire team who stood up to the challenge: arguing, disagreeing, placating, cooperating with each other with all the intellectual and creative meat they have got. Those were the virgin days of computers, when every morning is a beginning of a simulating day, and every thought was a bubbling breakthrough at the boundaries of an esoteric relationship with a machine. Anyone, who reads this book will begin to appreciate the quality of minds that made this industry possible, and also sadly, contrast it with the utter mediocrity that we find in most organizations today.

Well, it is not my intention to cast any judgments on IT professionals today, but it there for all of us to see that there is a glaring dip in the quality of people entering this industry. It has become the last refuge when nothing else works out. Having broken down the creative, individualistic process of building software in lifeless units of work, it now becomes possible to anybody to get into this profession with least drive and passion for it. And therein lies the tragedy… Nobody is to be blamed; it is the very nature of Industrialization that increases the spread of wealth and knowledge but averages out quality. For many youngsters, an IT job is a dream come true. Lots of Money, security, social status and all the rest of it; but the key question is, what do we do with all this leisure and money. Are we indulging or participating in realizing the human potential that is inherent in all of us? Or, are we frittering away lives in boredom, conformity and mediocrity? Again, excellence does not mean discovery or path breaking genius, but an attitude of giving the very best of oneself to whatever we undertake to do, exploring new dimensions and possibilities within the sphere of our work, attempt to comprehend a holistic picture of what we do and what is being achieved; try and push the bars of excellence a little bit in whatever we do - and above all to do something out of sheer joy and not boredom or escapism, and not be happy that we have beaten the system by sticking to it and unwilling to be a bit adventurous and risky. After all, it a little risk and insecurity that makes live worth living…

God bless…