Fakebook Entry: MIT hacker mtg twinky project paradigm
yeah, it's a cumbersome name. I'm not thinking in words, right? I can't type the glyph.
Features: (no promises this will make sense to anyone but me. No current promises this will make sense to me. I will be revising this over time)
WORK TIL IT'S DONE
Projects are, more or less, indivisible. They can be divided into chunks, but that's only for convenience. Having a set but no actors on opening night doesn't mean you have part of a show -- it means you have no show.
People don't commit to tasks, they commit skillsets to the project. Being the person in charge (the producer or whatever) is a particularly toothy task, as the "skillset" you are dedicating is Getting This Done -- either by finding people to do it or by covering the gaps yourself.
COMMITMENT LEVELS:
There are two major levels of commitment: When I Have Time (which tends to be not much, most people interacting in this model have far too much to do) and I Am Invested in Project Success.
Transitioning from When I Have Time to I Am Invested can happen by by slippery slope -- the more time you put in, the more likely it is you will become invested, not wanting the time and effort you already put in to go to waste.
Transitioning from I Am Invested to When I Have Time requires a reduction in the level of caring. This sometimes happens as had-boot adjustment of expectations (nobody else on the project seems to care, why should I? or this will fail, I must deinvest or my ego will get smashed, but I have some responsability to the people who still care), sometimes happens because other priorities are more important (work, school, and self-care are the typical trumps, and beware when people are too macho to use them because this leads to very bad instances of case 3) or BURNOUT occurs.
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, WORKCREEP AND WORKLOSS:
Committing one skillset (or type of resource -- "I have workspace" counts as a "skillset-type-thingy") at the I Am Invested level and not having it used hurts. It's kind of like being told you're useless. Sometimes intentionally utilized to drop undesirables from projects, although this tactic is usually reserved for highly unfortunate situations. This can happen by accident, and often happens to people who "just want to do the fun parts."
Committing one skillset and getting asked to commit more skillsets may or may not be acceptable. Because there isn't a limit on how much work one does within a given field once one is at the I Am Committed level, getting weasled into related fields is a useful tactic for the People In Charge, and may be painful for people who have it happen to them.
Avoiding this kind of pain is both why asking someone to teach may be looked at funny (people with lots to do often have idiosyncratic ways of getting it all done, and the extra burden of having to explain things as they do them can be seen as doubling their workload by adding a whole related aspect of the project), and why leaders may assign tasks on a pure volunteer basis, especially for small/informal/Fun projects, which means the Leader or oligarchs may get stuck with all the grungy stuff and burn out fast.
Quick notes:
Help can become tricky.
Fist case: help is a competent as you are, or moreso.
Being assigned help can be an expression of supposed incompetence. See committing a skillset and not having it used, above -- the "help" may be perceived as stealing one's tasks and stake in the project.
Second case: help is less competent than you are.
now you have someone to train. See the difficulties with training, above.
So unless you've got everything well in hand, in which case you don't really need help, there's a significant potential for help to be threatening. Or if you desperately need more people, in which case help is a welcome relief so long as you work well together, or if you and they have specializations that are recognizably different.
Specialization saves face, and thus saves the day.
WORK FLOWS TO THE INDUSTRIOUS. this is a warning for operating in this paradigm -- try to compensate by supporting industrious loved ones most, and ... trying to push noncommittals in a way that doesn't cause them to leave? See "transitioning from When I Have Time to I Am Invested."
DO NOT FORGET THIS PARADIGM. people you care about live in it.
Features: (no promises this will make sense to anyone but me. No current promises this will make sense to me. I will be revising this over time)
WORK TIL IT'S DONE
Projects are, more or less, indivisible. They can be divided into chunks, but that's only for convenience. Having a set but no actors on opening night doesn't mean you have part of a show -- it means you have no show.
People don't commit to tasks, they commit skillsets to the project. Being the person in charge (the producer or whatever) is a particularly toothy task, as the "skillset" you are dedicating is Getting This Done -- either by finding people to do it or by covering the gaps yourself.
COMMITMENT LEVELS:
There are two major levels of commitment: When I Have Time (which tends to be not much, most people interacting in this model have far too much to do) and I Am Invested in Project Success.
Transitioning from When I Have Time to I Am Invested can happen by by slippery slope -- the more time you put in, the more likely it is you will become invested, not wanting the time and effort you already put in to go to waste.
Transitioning from I Am Invested to When I Have Time requires a reduction in the level of caring. This sometimes happens as had-boot adjustment of expectations (nobody else on the project seems to care, why should I? or this will fail, I must deinvest or my ego will get smashed, but I have some responsability to the people who still care), sometimes happens because other priorities are more important (work, school, and self-care are the typical trumps, and beware when people are too macho to use them because this leads to very bad instances of case 3) or BURNOUT occurs.
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, WORKCREEP AND WORKLOSS:
Committing one skillset (or type of resource -- "I have workspace" counts as a "skillset-type-thingy") at the I Am Invested level and not having it used hurts. It's kind of like being told you're useless. Sometimes intentionally utilized to drop undesirables from projects, although this tactic is usually reserved for highly unfortunate situations. This can happen by accident, and often happens to people who "just want to do the fun parts."
Committing one skillset and getting asked to commit more skillsets may or may not be acceptable. Because there isn't a limit on how much work one does within a given field once one is at the I Am Committed level, getting weasled into related fields is a useful tactic for the People In Charge, and may be painful for people who have it happen to them.
Avoiding this kind of pain is both why asking someone to teach may be looked at funny (people with lots to do often have idiosyncratic ways of getting it all done, and the extra burden of having to explain things as they do them can be seen as doubling their workload by adding a whole related aspect of the project), and why leaders may assign tasks on a pure volunteer basis, especially for small/informal/Fun projects, which means the Leader or oligarchs may get stuck with all the grungy stuff and burn out fast.
Quick notes:
Help can become tricky.
Fist case: help is a competent as you are, or moreso.
Being assigned help can be an expression of supposed incompetence. See committing a skillset and not having it used, above -- the "help" may be perceived as stealing one's tasks and stake in the project.
Second case: help is less competent than you are.
now you have someone to train. See the difficulties with training, above.
So unless you've got everything well in hand, in which case you don't really need help, there's a significant potential for help to be threatening. Or if you desperately need more people, in which case help is a welcome relief so long as you work well together, or if you and they have specializations that are recognizably different.
Specialization saves face, and thus saves the day.
WORK FLOWS TO THE INDUSTRIOUS. this is a warning for operating in this paradigm -- try to compensate by supporting industrious loved ones most, and ... trying to push noncommittals in a way that doesn't cause them to leave? See "transitioning from When I Have Time to I Am Invested."
DO NOT FORGET THIS PARADIGM. people you care about live in it.