The three stone cutters
The following parable has made me think about the different views on the software development work:
A traveler came across three individuals working with stones. When asked about what he was doing, the first one replied, “I’m a stone cutter. I cut stones because I need the money to support my family“. The traveler then decided to ask the second worker, who answered, “I’m a great stone cutter. I can use all my techniques to produce the best shaped stone“. Surprised by the two distinct responses, the traveler finally asks the third man what he was doing. The worker stopped for a moment and then said, “I’m a stone cutter and I’m building a cathedral” .
Sometimes I have this feeling that we as professionals are frequently trying to be more like the second stone cutter than the the third one. Am I the only one?
Based on my experiences most developers I meet think they are building a cathedral, while building a tower of babel instead. This realization is related to Elisabeth Hendricksons “Lost in translation” article and Gojko Adzics work on “Bridging the Communication Gap”.
I really think that’s a splitted scenario: part of us only try to shape the best stones, another part build towers of babel (as pointed by Markus) and a few build cathedrals with good and average stones, choosing them in a way that the main goal (the cathedral) gets done and doesn’t fall in 2 or 3 months.
Anyway, I think that there’s another point in this parable: every member in the team, doesn’t matter how small is his influence, should know what’s the major goal behind the scene.. it certainly will make the third guy think twice before releasing a poor stone to *HIS* cathedral.
Really looks simple in theory, but the day by day shows that it’s not so trivial..