Why you might be on Mount Stupid
The more you learn, the less you know.
Let’s imagine you’re working at a software company. Things aren’t going very well.
But it’s easy, right?
After months of technical exploration and prototypes, your team has been unable to produce anything that looks like it will make the new product work in the way that it was imagined.
This isn’t sitting well with the VP Engineering and the Sales Director, who need to shift units. In fact, they’re completely livid.
The Sales Director is first to interject. “You’re honestly telling us that after 3 months you have nothing that is going to get this thing built?”
Your engineers aren’t particularly used to this kind of intense confrontation, especially from such senior people in the company. It makes them feel like they are pretty stupid.
“We tried. It’s just a really difficult problem.”
Their nervousness makes them fail to say they’ve produced some very interesting prototypes.
“3 months and 6 people and we have nothing? I just don’t think you’re working hard enough, especially when compared to the sales team. They’re on it all of the time. When are you going to step up?”
