You’ve all heard the derisive phrases “form over function”, “lipstick on a pig” and the like. The gist of these epithets is to indicate that more care and attention is put into how something looks than into how that something works. Its a fair criticism when the function is lacking, but I’d argue that when the function is solid, the form is an equally important consideration. Function without form is no function at all. I believe that this is an important concept that is ignored. I believe that this needs to be a fundamental tenet of the IT industry. I believe that form is the diferentiator and I’ll tell you why.
The Final Third
Posted by on August 31, 2010
A few weeks ago an old friend and I did the Grouse Grind. It is a grueling trail often referred to as Mother Nature’s stair master. We are not exactly models of fitness but we thought “How bad can it be”, then “Can we really do this”, to “What do you mean “halfway to one third”?”, but we rallied “I’m not going back down, I don’t care if we sleep here”. And so the story went in a comedic struggle for how far we could or would push ourselves. In the end, I promised myself a beer at the top and she celebrated the journey the entire trek up.
It became obvious early in our hike that she was going to be the champion for this endeavour. Yet even in her role as the spirit guide for this exercise in human torture there came a moment when she held a quiet doubt. She whispered it with a smile as she turned a particularly steep corner on the final third of the climb. ”Where’s the chicken door?” she said “There’s always a chicken door.”
In every haunted house there’s a door that takes you out of the dark into the daylight where you can see all the corners and what is around them. There comes a time in most every project when its sponsor says longingly “Where’s the chicken door?”.
By this point you have enough experience to appreciate the magnitude of the task, enough invested to make the journey personal and enough strength to laugh.
