I had to go looking for it because I was sure I've written about compromise before (or at least the work "compromise").

And I did, but I called it Trade-off...

I have a lot going on, a lot of it seems important- I know, honestly, a lot of it isn't.

And the word "compromise" came to mind as I went about all the things I wanted to get done.

On the one hand, if I were to "give in" to letting some things go, of putting a stop and "calling it" on some of these activities, projects, just things that I'm doing.

I felt that would compromise my integrity. I said yes to a bunch of things. I held myself to a standard of service, of quality. And now I was contemplating not delivering? Am I compromising my values?

But then, as some kind of sense started to dawn on that episode of my mind, I saw compromise as an act of grace, of love, for myself and the truly important things in my life- which I don't have many if I'm being really honest. Like, how many do you really need?

So maybe today's post is not a concise reflection, conclusive, insightful... just thoughtful observation and contemplation on what it means to compromise.

Looking up the etymology: "from Latin com (together) + promittere (promise).." coming together to form a mutual promise.

Doesn't sound so bad when you put it like that then huh ;)

Pain is inevitable. Life is pain.

Dramatic much?

Well, what do you consider pain then? A terminal illness? A broken leg? Heart break?

How about disappointment? Insecurity? Anxiety? Uncertainty? Depression? Losing someone close to you? A heated argument? Are these not all things we will experience at some stage in life, maybe often? Repeatedly?

But this is just life, and as you can see life, is pain.

We get one "out" though- the power to choose.

For example when deciding to go for a goal in life, you get to choose which pain you experience- the pain of failure if you try, or the pain of regret if you don't? You don't get to escape pain, only choose which pain you accept.

Because you have no control over the things that happen to you, but you always have control over how you respond to it- you get to choose.

Choose wisely, but you can always, always choose.

Why do we say more than is necessary? Why do we write more than is needed to explain or convey the message?

We may not know the topic well enough. We may understand it enough to apply ourselves, but probably don't know it well enough in a "taught" format.

We may feel we need to add a lot more information because the other person may not have all the context or background information. We may feel like providing more information because we personally find it interesting.

And for all these things "we may" be or "it may" be, the only thing that's clear is we don't know ourselves or other people perfectly to know exactly the right information, said or written in the right way, so that our message is anything but concise.

I spoke with an old high school friend, who has traveled and lived teaching at high schools around the world.

He asked me what I thought of ChatGPT and told me how it has been helping him create lesson plans, write reports and everything in between.

I told him I'd been using it as a "study buddy" and coding machine to quickly fabricate pieces of code I needed for various projects I had been working on. And right there, are two different industries where AI is having an immediate effect on productivity without a great deal of fuss i.e. instructions, or courses to go through to eventually apply to what I do in order to reap the benefits we were after in the first place.

Inevitably the thought comes up, what is this going to do with the roles and industries it will inevitably eliminate?

This isn't a new cross-road for technology (any technology really, think of horses before cars came along). When a new technology and "era" is emerging, naturally it starts out with a lot of FUD, first questioning the validity, then the morality and uncertainty of said new technology.

And we are right to question, to discuss and debate what the pro's and con's are of anything that has the potential to create significant impact on society. Change is inevitable. That much we know. I'm not smart enough to know to what degree those changes will impact which parts of society, just that it will. And the mainly hopeful outlook I have on that, is just from the experience of watching an industry adapt to new tech roles coming in with the advent of the DevOps philosophy. It was out with the old (or rebrand, depending on how sh!t your company was), and in with the new. And I think on balance, it was a good thing. We obsoleted things that needed to deprecate, and ushered in an era that helped things move forward in how we did tech.

Nothing lasts forever. Change is inevitable.

Adapt.

It's better to be true to yourself and find only a few like-minded souls than be someone you're not and succeed at being that.

Freedom with the few, or imprisoned by popularity.

Seth Godin says to find your "minimum viable audience", to be on the hook for your niche and find ways to 100% serve their very specific, particular wants and needs.

Don't do the "masses". Select for your few.

Nobody cares. Do it anyway.

It's a thought that needs to be repeated. Daily. Hourly?

That we are insignificant in the grandest scheme of things. That isn't a diminishing, or demeaning concept or way of thinking of oneself. But a liberation from the most inane sense of grandiosity that imprisons us and our "true" selves to exist and live out our purpose.

And the purpose is not "grand". It just is is. End of.

Everything we ever needed to be who we were meant to be, was inside us all along.

Do it anyway. Nobody cares.

They say "hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard enough".

The "hard work" in that saying is the boring part.

I've known plenty of talented people who didn't work very hard, they enjoyed being able to pass the mark by showing up on the day.

No training. No study.

Little work for a lot of reward.

The thing, these people are from a very long time ago when I was young, a teenager even. And maybe time and maturity gives you a different lens to look through, but it's so obvious now that the "talented" way of life has a very short shelf life.

"Time will make fools of us all" is a saying I just made up, because that's the thing that defeats all notions of the "talented way of life".

Between talent and hard work, the reality is both will be subject to time (as we all are).

And talent over time is a law of diminishing returns. And that's not to say talent doesn't count for anything- of course it doesn't. Between two hard working people, the one with talent has the advantage. Between a lazy talent and a hard worker, time will crown the one who has put in the most work.

Turn up every day, work. The end.

There's a concept in BJJ (and I'm sure it's in a lot of physical, competitive sports) where the state of being "tired", is the place where your real training begins.

I heard this today "how you fight when you're tired, is how you will fight on the day" from a Kickboxing video.

And in my experience, this is true. There's a saying I've known my whole martial career (well, one of many sayings), that "Cardio makes cowards of us all" because your will to essentially "play fight" goes out the window when you get tired enough.

You need something more.

More than the game you're playing in a sport. You need to fight something, an adversary to defeat, a challenge that feels like life or death, something that won't let you off the hook. That won't allow you to accept defeat.

And like all things, especially the ones worth pursuing, there is an associated pain.

Today's pain is "I'm tired", and yet there are things to be done.

Do I find something so extreme that needs to be defeated that I can accept this pain of "tired"?

No. I just accept that things need to be done, and I will do them.

Going against the grain is never easy.

It's easier to go with what everyone else is doing and not upset the status quo, to not stand out.

Eric Hoffer talks about the aggravation that "freedom" gives us in "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements", placing "...the whole blame of failure on the shoulder of the individual".

When we get to think for ourselves, we are liberated, but we are also subject to what those thoughts bring us. Responsibility? Obligation? It's no wonder then that people will go with the crowd, or keep their unpopular opinions to themselves lest they are challenged on it.

And we repeat this, in our lives, in our families, on and on, for generations.

But the unpopular thing, the "different" thing, is the only thing that will bring about change. You can't keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different results- the definition of insanity.

Unpopular thinking and action is necessary for change. Bert Hellinger's "The Black Sheep" sees these characters in the family tree, "criticized, judged and even rejected" as being the ones that will actually "free the tree from repetitive stories that frustrate entire generations.". Without you going against the grain, the unfulfilled dreams of your ancestors who couldn't go against the grain "would die buried beneath their own roots".

It's a sobering thought, that you carry this opportunity with you, to realise not only a change for yourself, but for your ancestors who wanted so much more for themselves, the family tree, and you.

Be unpopular.

I started my career off on the helpdesk, customer support.

The more I advanced in technical skill and understanding, the further away from the customer I seemed to move.

By the time I was engineering platforms and building multiple environments, I ended up surrounded by tech, standards, languages and infrastructure. And the closest people I would deal with, having "stakes" in my work were other internal teams, who were managing software that was eventually customer facing.

And as you evolved as an engineer, you begin to realise the coordination between components of the infrastructure, between teams and software at the application and platform layer evolved and accelerated the need to understand the operation, challenges and drivers of other teams and their products (encased in technology) is crucial to running an efficient and effective ship.

But a ship to where?

It's a ship to a business outcome. It feels like a bit of a Scooby Do reveal moment, that it was business all along. But after you boil it all down, after the marketing sheen has faded, and the 'all hands' buzz has died down, we sit back down at our desks, and complete the tasks that has the single purpose, of delivering the business outcomes we are here to do.

The final stage of your evolution arrives through ever increasing complexities and variables, drivers both technical, human resource, financial and economic dynamics, to deliver the business outcome...

Who are these business outcomes for?

Who they've always been for. The customer. The consumer. The end "user".

You are now the Architect.