This past weekend I led a session on “The Ambition of Design: a philosophy of technology and design” at the D2WC conference in Kansas City. I will include a url to the talk here soon.
In it, I ponder the question, “What is your purpose?” and I contrast the roles of two different human beings, the architect and the ditch digger.
Imagine there is a hole being dug and in that hole is an architect and a ditch digger. The architect, who has a discipline, and holds many concerns for structure and design, also has knowledge about many disciplines. The ditch digger has no discipline, no knowledge and hold three concerns:
1. Does the shovel go into the ground?
2. Does the dirt fly out of the hole after I dig?
3. Am I getting paid?
The architect may be in the ditch digging for any number of reasons. For instance, the architect may be examining the soil, evaluating the ground, or seeing just how far down he can dig. They may look similar to a casual observer, but they are in that hole digging for very different reasons.
Once that ditch digger gets out of that hole, that person is still a ditch digger. That person can’t design a building unless they commit, through study, to becoming an architect.
In spite of the fact many have the word, “architect,” on a business card, I see many technology people working in America today, acting more like ditch diggers than architects.
Instead of leading clients, holding concerns and knowing how to take care of them, the majority of those working in technology today are looking at clients with eyes glazed over and hands out and saying, “Just tell me what you want.”
Give me the shovel. Show me the hole. Let me go dig.
We place more value on what we “do” versus what we “know.”
I got a great question today from @scottrarden who attended the session.
I enjoyed your presentation and wish more time – tons to think of – but how do you begin the move from ditch digger to architect?
Today, I felt it appropriate to set the stage of the discussion for those who couldn’t attend. Moving from ditch digger to architect will be my focus of tomorrow’s blog post.
In the meantime, what is your purpose?
