Editorial: This time Razi Thalib will bring us to see the nature, the divine force behind the creation and management of nature, contemplation, technology and how all this could inspire better digital development.
As the holy month celebrations pass and we begin to return to work some of us may have briefly considered our spiritual place in the universe. For those of us living and breathing “digital” the day to day work we perform may on the surface be far removed from our connection to any divine purpose. It is therefore rare that we experience engaging with people who connect technology development with how they approach appreciating their spiritual existence. It is often the case in fact that the two are placed in entirely separate mental compartments.
Whatever our beliefs are in a higher entity, none of us can deny the awesomeness that is life, the existence of nature that supports it and the force behind such exquisite beauty. Upon reflection there are many insights that we can glean from such power. As a proponent of great technology permit a layman like myself to share some humble and brief reflections on several of these learnings that may inspire better digital development.
Complex simplicity and simple complexity
Consider a seed set in soil blooming into a flowering plant that produces fruit. What started out as something simple follows a complex process of maturation that produces an outcome presented in a seemingly simple package.
Great products start from simple ideas. What problem does it solve? Delivering the solution is another matter (hence the term “the devil is in the details”). It is a misconception to think that simple, easy to use products are born out of simple minds. Simple solutions are derived from complex thinking. It requires combining a complete understanding of the market with a unique proposition delivered in a manner easily understood by the intended audience.
Constantly evolving
Natural selection eliminates the weak and promotes adaptive evolution. Consider the lost civilization of Friendster and why Facebook continues to make radical changes despite often making users feel uncomfortable. Species in nature evolve to prolong their existence and do so for and through reproduction. Perhaps admitting early on that the current version of our product is going to die will push us to quickly and more often inseminate it with new ideas. Just as in nature there should be an inert desire to improve offspring (perbaiki keturunan) to produce new versions that will adapt better to future conditions.
Fly or die
I personally find this approach hardest to execute (as a confessed perfectionist and someone who believes in always being prepared) but the best training ground perhaps is where you’re forced to jump head first and the consequences are dire at best if you fail.
Consider young birds getting pushed off a tree ledge to either learn to fly or die trying. I believe this is apt inspiration to get digital projects or startups off the ground. The earlier the better and the longer you wait the harder it is to soar.
Drawing strength from hardship
As an add-on to the fly or die approach it seems clear that strength often comes from suffering or from being challenged. An alpha male of the species loses its edge if it didn’t constantly have to fend of potential challengers. Bacteria develop resistance over time to antibiotics. And did you know that one of the main reasons for success of European colonialism in places such as South America and Australia were due to germs? They experienced crowded living much earlier and the spread of diseases due to this made them resistant to it over time. Peoples such as the Mayans and Aborigines had not developed a similar resistance and died in mass numbers upon contact with their invaders.
I probably don’t have to mention that we benefit learning from mistakes but perhaps this is an opportunity to encourage us all to embrace difficulty and failures. Fearing and avoiding it will just make us susceptible and weaker in the long run. Appreciate the competition, encourage them to challenge us to our limits and enjoy the moment when we finally figure out how to best them.
Heavily relied upon yet rarely discussed
I believe the best technology implementation remains relatively silent. It doesn’t demand attention and simply performs its duty. It downplays the “how it worked” and encourages stakeholders to focus on their goals and fully expect that the technology will work.
Many of nature’s inner workings remain a mystery to me but it doesn’t detract from my confidence that the sun will set over yet another day just like clockwork. Consider also how our bodies are trained to be unconsciously competent at regular tasks like breathing. All of us assuredly take it for granted despite immediately dying if it were to stop even for a few minutes. Only technology THAT good can make us forget the fact that downtime equals death.
Promoting symbiotic relationships
There are numerous examples of symbiotic relationships in nature. Simply Google it and discover. I personally only remember a few from 6th grade biology. The point though is that it pays to seek mutually beneficial collaboration. We all have strengths and weaknesses. Aligning with others who complement or overcome our weaknesses and who we can pay back in equal and opposite measure seems like a no brainer. Without making light of competition perhaps we can start aggressively seeking collaborations to land bigger and globally competitive projects. This is in contrast to isolating ourselves to being a small fish in a small pond. Perhaps by banding more together we can have a better chance of taking on the ocean.
In contemplating nature even for a brief moment I find that it provides the ultimate example of great technology implementation. When we observe living things on our planet (including ourselves) in action we can find perfect examples to inspire our own approach to developing products. It pays to learn from the best and it doesn’t get any better than from the divine force behind the creation and management of nature.
Razi Thalib, a free man since 2009, left a cushy high-paying job to romantically return home and lead a life of ambiguous ideation of which no one is willing to pay him for. Such is the price of freedom! He currently helps Indonesia Mengajar as their chief digital officer and runs a collaborative agency called bridges and balloons. People make fun of the name sometimes, but he’s learned to live with it. You can read his brain farts on twitter @RaziThalib but he recommends instead that you get back to work!
Technology turning to nature for inspiration http://morldtechgossips.blogspot.com/2011/09/normal-0-false-false-false.html