about Mark...

[Peter M. Brigham]

On May 10, 2015, at 12:42 PM, Mark Waddingham wrote:

> As in all things, there is a balance to be struck between doing and talking - I must confess I tend towards the doing rather than the talking and it is a constant contention even for me in any resource-constrained environment (which is, unfortunately, the world we live in - whether commercial, charity or any other realm you happen to exist in).

I think the tenor of this thread shows that part of being the leader of a development community is communicating with the community (especially as LC has gone open source), and that your engagement here is highly valued. I appreciate that this tears you away from the technical nuts and bolts work that is central to product development, but the connection with the community also is also crucial. It's a little like the general principle that anyone in a leadership position must not only lead those who work for him/her but also serve as the representative of the organization in the larger world -- and this function is often left invisible to those lower in the hierarchy. Leaders always have to wear at least two hats.

From one point of view, you work for us, and knowing something about how you are doing your job is reassuring. The lack of that knowledge will always stir up the mob. Although communication will also always raise many more questions to be answered, so the job is never done.

Who was it who said, life is like pinball -- when you win, what do you get? You get to play again. Whenever you solve a problem what do you get? Another problem. You know you're making progress when you keep having new problems instead of the same problem over and over again.

-- Peter

Peter M. Brigham
pmbrig at gmail.com
http://home.comcast.net/~pmbrig