Back during my "formative college years", I was given an assignment, that radically changed the way I looked at the world.
The lesson(s) I learned then, I still carry with me, to this very day.
The assignment: Read and Report on the American Classic:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig
The lesson learned:
There is something very paradoxical about the way Society, and individuals in it, go about:
Measuring Quality vs Measuring Quantities ...
My conclusions now:
Much of the startling lack of "forward progress" by a Society,
can be traced back to "measuring the wrong things, in the wrong way" ...
And Society having way too few consistent ways of measuring that "forward progress", over time, on a Quality Basis.
BTW, How's your "Quality of Life" these days?
Are you better off?
How would you go about "proving" your answer?
I'm a programmer by trade. There is a common scenario, that plays itself out, over and over again in the industry, that illustrates the nature of problem of Measuring Quality vs Measuring Quantities.
Some of the prevailing metrics, used to "gauge" a Programmer's Productivity, go like this:
- How many lines of Code are written per day?
- How many Programs or Projects, are Completed per year?
- How much did it cost, to complete the Software Project?
- How many reusable Routines were developed, for future use?
Those are Examples of Quantity-based measures of "the success" for your typical software programmer (who is constantly facing the threat of overseas outsourcing).
On the other hand, there are some other metrics that are applied less frequently, that have more to do with the overall "synergistic effects" that Coding can have on providing Quality Solutions in the real world:
- Were the original Business Needs and Problems, resolved by the Software Application?
- Are the Program Managers and Users, more productive when using the Software Application?
- Are the Customers better served, better informed, and generally more satisfied, as result of this Programming Project?
- Does this Programming Project, fit in well, and share data well, with other existing Programming Projects in the organization?
Those are Examples of Quality-based measures of success for your typical software programmer (who appreciates the impact Coding should have in the world). Similar examples could be spelled out, for other occupations I'm sure, such as Teacher, Police Officer, Administrator, or HR consultant. This same type of "metric" dilemma exists in most fields:
We tend focus on concrete Quantities as a "gauge" for Success, when often it is the Qualitative aspects of problem-solving, that matters SO much more, in the long run of life.
I suspect this bias toward Quantitative Scoring, is largely the result of what is easier to measure -- "Multiple Choice" Tests are definitely easier to Grade, than Essay Tests. But which answers demonstrate the greater depth of knowledge, for a given field?
Back to the "Software Synergy" idea. As a Society we owe a lot to Software Developers (and other creative professionals, driven by qualitative vision and skills). But just HOW often is the Societical Worth of such Synergy, and increases in productivity, ever measured? -- Rarely, I would assert, or certainly not often enough.
Imagine HOW different your life would be WITHOUT:
Google, Yahoo,
or Amazon,
or Facebook,
or DailyKos
or Senate.gov
or the latest Poll says,
or fill-in-the-blank.com
Now extrapolate that Synergy Effect to Newspapers, and Books, and Libraries, and the invention of the "Printing Press" --
I doubt Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the "Printing Press" was motivated by the "stacks of money" his invention would bring in, someday. Gutenberg motives seem to have been purer than that -- to have been more based, in improving the Quality of Lives, for millions of people (not towards the acquiring of Millions of Bucks).
And his invention did indeed "change the world." -- Big Time!
Striving for Quality, tends to have that effect, imo.
(just look at the evolution of the Blackberry!)
What Green Energy technologies, lie fallow, due to the lack of vision, among our Quantitatively-oriented Leaders?
Back to the very paradoxical ways that Society, and individuals in it, go about:
Measuring Quality vs Measuring Quantities.
Here is the classic Dilemma as expressed in that very-formative Modern American Classic, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
An Inquiry into Values -- by Robert M. Pirsig
From a few of the more thought-provoking quotes at the end of:
Part II - Chapter 8
...
I know that she came by a second time and asked, "Are you really teaching Quality this quarter?" and he nodded and looked back from his chair for a second and said, "Definitely!" and she trotted on. He was working on lecture notes at the time and was in a state of complete depression about them.
... so he wrote on the blackboard: "Write a 350-word essay answering the question, What is quality in thought and statement?" Then he sat by the radiator while they wrote and thought about quality himself.
...
Quality -- you know what it is, yet you don't know what it is. But that's self-contradictory. But some things are better than others, that is, they have more quality. But when you try to say what the quality is, apart from the things that have it, it all goes poof! There's nothing to talk about. But if you can't say what Quality is, how do you know what it is, or how do you know that it even exists? If no one knows what it is, then for all practical purposes it doesn't exist at all. But for all practical purposes it really does exist. What else are the grades based on? Why else would people pay fortunes for some things and throw others in the trash pile? Obviously some things are better than others -- but what's the "betterness"? -- So round and round you go, spinning mental wheels and nowhere finding anyplace to get traction. What the hell is Quality? What is it?
(emphasis added)
http://www.virtualschool.edu/...
Good Questions!
How would you define Quality, in either Society, or in your own Life? (How would you answer that 350-word essay on: How Do you Measure Quality?)
And on the "Quality of Life" front --
Are you better off?
How would you go about "proving" your answer?
Sometimes words, leave a lot unsaid ...
Far too often, words can entirely miss the point, too!
(Quantity answers, without out Quality aspirations, result in sterile, clinical metrics, that can totally miss, the real world "Business Needs" of Society as a Whole.)
Maybe the Sum of The People, and their Dreams, really is greater, than their individual constituent parts (and our lone stories)?
Afterall, Life is made of such stories ... sometimes it takes some "Quality Time" to tell them ...