• Original primitive societies
• Slavery – I owe you, so you do what I want.
• Feudalism – I owe your land, so part of what you produce is mine.
• Capitalism – I just pay you to work with my tools, so everything you produce belongs to me.
• Socialism – that “owner” guy appointed me to decide and manage, you still work with somebody else’s tools somebody else’s material and produce somebody else’s product. And I decide how the loot is distributed. Also, I know exactly what I want you to do.
• Knowledge society – I was appointed by the “owner” guy to manager, but I have no clue what to do. You are professional, it’s your job. I’ll just share the loot with you if you do a good job and I am in the mood.
• ??? What’s next???

No, really? Most of our conversations stop here, at the knowledge society. Whenever a question arises, wht’s next, I usually give the speech about “We’ll know when we’ll get there.” True enough. But you know what? I suspect some companies are already there…

There… In the…

Discovery Economy.

I’ve got to this conclusion considering management techniques for the software development industry. Being on the cutting edge, it’s no surprise that this industry produced tons of different controversial management techniques. Waterfall, rad, scrum, xp to name just a few… There are proponents of these techniques, there are opponents of them, but in the end everybody’s question is: “Do they work?” And the answer is: “It depends.”

It depends on the project you manage. It may be a project where everybody knows what to do, it’s just a matter of time and effort. That’s pretty much industrial project, where manager kknows what to do and can measure the outcome. Such project are easy to manage.

There are projects that require domain knowledge. There managers often does not know what to do, but the people do. Naturally, it’s harder to manage, but still doable. You get tasks and estimates form the people, you mange, slap then into a Gantt chart, and you are there.

Unfortunately, I see more and more projects where you have to awe your market which each release, and if you don’t… well… your loss. Do you think Palm, Blackberry, Gmail, or iPod/iPhone could have been managed in one of the ways described above? Not a chance. The problem is, to create such product you need a team where not only managers don’t have any idea of what to do, neither does the file and rank. They just have ability to produce it, but not the ability to describe it before they produced it. How do you manage such projects?

To understand the difference, let’s compare it to a fairy tale.

Once there was a prince. He dreamed of a princess locked in the highest room of the highest tower guarded by a fire-breathing dragon… Now, how would he proceed?

In the industrial society, the prince would hire a knight, who goes exactly where prince tells him to go and does exactly what the prince tells him to do. Will it result in a frred princess? Well… that does not work in the fairy tales, not to mention the real life. Neither do industrial socialistic methods in the modern society.

In the knowledge society, the prince would hire a knight, who supposedly knows where to go and what to do. Think Shrek. Yes, it work as long as you have somebody who knows where to go and what to do, details delicately omitted in the “Shrek” movie.

But what if you have no clue even where the castle is? Well, welcome to the discovery economy. Now the prince have to get in the saddle and spend days, weeks, months trying to find at least a clue, where to look for his result. He has to slay irrelevant dragons, converse with ignorant wizards, travel from town to town all over the world collecting pieces of data that will eventually lead him to the princess.

Applying older management techniques to the discovery economy

Clearly, that does not work well for the Far Away Kingdom management and accounting. So, naturally, when faced with failed deliverables, the Far Away Managers come with the management techniques.

Hey, Prince, can you, please, specify your itinerary, every day’s points of departure and arrival, all the dragons, you plan to slay, all the wizards, you plan to converse to and what exact answers do you plan to hear from them??? Yeah, right. If you’d know the answers, why would you need to talk to them in the first place?

Do you see?

More and more companies have to predictably produce outcomes that the world have never seen before. And no existing management techniques work to deliver that.

That’s Discovery Economy.

That’s the economy where every version or a release you have to produce something that will make jaws fall to the floor, and if you don’t – beware!

Granted, if you apply industrial age management techniques, some jaws will fall to the floor… because of yawning. And that’s not what you want. You want an awe…  You want inspire, shock, impress…

You want Google, Prius, iPhone… Can you do that treating your people like a canon meat on early XX century assembly line? I don’t think so.

Ok, it was too long already, so I’ll leave you thinking about what you already read about. Talk to you next time!

Dear Eldar,

I am writing you on behalf of the trade union Brain Cells of Eldar Corps (”the Union”). It came to our attention that you are violating our trade agreement (”Agreement”), specifically, chapter 4.34.(b) stating that members of the Union are entitled to the daily norm of 7 hours of the reduced work shift generally referred to as “sleeping”. While we recognize that members of the Union (brain cells) are exempt employees, who are supposed to work overtime in case of emergency (chapter 4.37.(k)), let us remind you that it was supposed to be a temporary emergency (chapter 4.38.(q)), like a need to run from a jaguar in an African savannah. We contacted respective unions of senses and muscle cells, and they haven’t reported any jaguars or elevated muscle activity, so it seems clear to us that you are violating the terms of our Agreement.

While the Union recognizes your authority as CEO of Eldar Corps., we remind you that you have to live to the terms of the Agreement. Maybe you should move out of jaguar country, or find a safe lair to hide, we don’t know. But unless you want to become a blithering idiot (which you already are, considering that you are writing this letter on our behalf), you have to provide us with the daily allowance of sleep.

Considering that you have consistently violated this point of the Agreement for the significant time (months), the Union has no other option as to declare a 24-hour strike, when you must provide us with sleep or some other form of rest. We also have to inform you that the Union co-opted and is now in negotiations with the reputable company Cold & Flu Business Protection and Worker Representatives, LLC. from Chicago, who say they may be able to make you an offer you can’t refuse.

Yours Truly,
Your Brain, Esq.

P.S. Cold viruses are saying “Hi!” and thanking you for your hospitality. They are impressed with your tolerance to cultural diversity and promise to make every third toast to your health, while they are feasting in your body.

Michael wanted out. He did not like fairy tales, he wanted to escape into the real world. “What’s the use to earn money and getting property, if the state won’t allow me to take it with myself, when I will leave the country? Knowledge is the only property that they cannot take away from me at the customs!”

We are lucky. We live in the Free World and we can have property. Can we?

Just two days ago I was driving from my home and noticed a sign “Estate Sale”. It usually means that somebody died and left a lot of stuff. In Ancient Egypt they’d throw it into the burial chamber for the use in afterlife, but in the modern times we know that they won’t need it. So, we sell it. That’s what the word “estate” means: your earthly possessions, your stuff, your property.

We are accustomed to think of property as something that we OWN, that’s unquestionably ours, that’s something we can rely on being available, when we need it, that’s there at our disposal because we have the right to it. Have we?

Think about an American holy of holies, an American dream, your home, Real Estate. Do you know why real estate is called “real”? Most people think that’s because it’s the only kind of property that is truly real, as “not fake”, material, substantial. Alas, they are wrong.

In fact, “real estate” comes from Spanish. It’s not “real” estate, it’s “royal” estate. That is something that belongs to the King, and you are just granted the privilege to use it.

Ok, ok, we don’t have a King anymore, do we? Then, what do you think will happen if you’ll stop paying property taxes? Do you still think it’s a “real” property or does it begin to feel like a sort of a rent or a lease?

Yes, all property still belongs to the King or, at least, to the Crown. It’s just we have other entities in place of the King: state, county, city, but the point is still the same. You don’t own your property, you’ve just got the right to use it, and a very expensive right by the way. You buy this right for hundreds of thousand dollars, and then you pay a rent that’s called property taxes. Stop paying that rent, and the landlord – state, county, city – we’ll get you out cold on the sidewalk. Here, in the Free World, we still don’t own our property.

Let me share another story with you. About a year or two ago one of very successful Internet marketers Perry Belcher made a mistake. He decided to promote some diet product. I don’t know what happened, maybe he’s got too high share of the market to attract attention of the big boys in the industry, maybe the product was really not on par with its promises – like the most of diet products are, but one day a local county sheriff walked in and sealed all his property. It was not even FDA or FTC, that was just the local county, which got a few complaints from the customers and, in the end, got a few millions in its budget – everything that Perry had. Notice, I don’t claim that it was the reason, I am just stating the facts: money belong to Perry and went where? To the county or state budget. I don’t know who’s right and who’s wrong, that’s not the point of my story. The point is that he lost everything: real estate, bank accounts, business, you name it. Everything was confiscated. The King came in and took his Estate just like in medieval Europe or Rome during the soldier emperors or Nero.

Still, in a year and a half, Perry is back on his feet and again making millions. Yes. In a year and a half after he lost everything. Yes, millions. There was one thing the King could not take away: Perry’s knowledge, skills, friends, and ability to market goods and services.

Today in America, it’s still the Soviet Union all over again. The King can strip you away of anything you own with a snap of fingers of lawyers, courts, or government officials. And just like in the Soviet Union, there is still something he still cannot take away: your intrinsic value.

That’s the essence of the knowledge economy. The first time in history of the human kind, we have something that the King cannot take away. At last, we are not interreplaceable slaves, we have an intrinsic inseparable value of our knowledge, skills, and friends.

Don’t get me wrong, money is important. I work hard for the money I earn, some would say that I work too hard and I should do it smarter instead. Hey, I am learning. That’s what I do. Learning. Learning from other people, who hopefully will become my friends. Because learning gives knowledge, skills, and friends.

Because that’s my only Real (”real”, not “royal”) estate that the King cannot take away from me.

Don’t tell me lies. Never tell me lies. I cannot accept your lies.

Even if you believe in them yourself, don’t tell me your lies. Even if your boss believes in them, don’t tell me your lies. Even if your family believes in them, don’t tell me your lies.

It does not matter, if it is a big lie or a small lie. It does not matter if it hurts me or helps me. It does not matter if it affects me or not. Don’t tell me your lies.

It does not matter if this is a lie about Enlightened Future of Humanity (whichever it is). Or about Values of your Political System (whichever it is). Or about how happy I should be working for such a great company (whichever it is). Don’t tell me your lies.

On a staff meeting you expect me to be inspired by the company pep-talk. But I cannot.

On meetings you expects me to say finally that we made a good decision. But I cannot.

On my performance review your expect me to agree with your opinion. But I cannot.

That’s not because I am not a team player. That’s not because I am not collaborative. That’s not because I cannot reasonably estimate myself.

Because I am a team player, and I can follow team decisions even if they are wrong. Because I am collaborative and I can compromise to reach the goal. Because I can estimate myself comparing to what my colleagues achieved and how they are praised for that.

But I cannot say that wrong decision is right, it’s still wrong. But I cannot say that compromise is better that the right decision, because it still not better. But I cannot accept that somebody is worth more than me because you just like him, you have to have something more than that.

What’s the use of a scale, if it will show pound and kilogram the same to avoid bias in favor of US or EU system?

What’s the use of a microscope, if it’s made to show male and female cells the same way because legally they are “equal”?

What’s the use of a camera, if it shows black and white with the same color on photos?

My mind is my precious tool. It has the ability to see things right. To distinct clearly right and wrong, truth and lie, good and bad.

This is why I can make good designs. This is why I can create complex systems. This is why I can do my work.

My mind is what makes me different from a part-time worker at McDonald. From pizza delivery guy. From cashier at the grocery store.

My mind is the reason why you hired me. My mind is the reason why you need me. My mind is the reason why you are paying such money for me.

If I’ll accept your lies, I will break this tool. If I will accept your lies, I will not be able to distinct truth from lie anymore. Good design from a bad design. Right decision from a poor one. Bug from a feature.

If I’ll accept your lies, I will be useless to you.

Don’t tell me your lies.