“Way back when I started out, there were a couple of new products coming online, and they had hired our team in to take on specific responsibilities. The team I worked on was a blend of ages and experiences. Some of the old timers…” He chuckles to himself. “They were probably in their late thirties but seemed ancient.”
There’s a smattering of laughter.
“Most were very approachable, and some less so. So I’ll tell you what I did.”
He licks his lips. Standing in front of them, a man in his sixties, in corduroy trousers, a shirt tucked in over an ample belly, blonde, greying-thinning hair kept long and swept back from his forehead. His eyes are alive and his lips mobile with a hint of a smile as he relays his secrets.
“I found the most grumpy, unapproachable, difficult person in my immediate organisation and decided to befriend them.”
Fillipo smiles too. “I don’t understand. How does that help?”
“In the first instance, not at all. But this wasn’t about learning the systems. Instead, I felt I needed to understand what had made this one person so angry with his organisation. He was obviously very proud to work there due to the quality of the work he was turning out. But something made him want the organisation or…”
At this point, Charles thinks about it harder, narrowing his eyes:
“…or perhaps at least the managers suffer for him having to be there.
“As I understood, he wasn’t always that bitter; he’d just been allowed through successive mishandling and disappointments to drift into a situation where he could behave like he did.”
Charles shakes his head. Perhaps realising he’s going too deep. “Suffice to say, I found it troubling that someone could be doing something so interesting and finding it so hard or disappointing. I also wanted to ensure I didn’t end up like that at some point.”
Most of the gathering has stopped writing, scrolling or typing. They are looking at Charles with a sense of… was it perhaps, awe or disappointment or just anticipation?
A woman in her mid-twenties wearing a black suit suddenly asks a question with a shrug.
“Why is that important? How does this help us understand systems we don’t know?”
Charles smiles and looks at her.
“The most important pattern you can match is feelings you recognise in others. Empathy comes in many forms, but emotions play an important part in software systems, as sensing mechanisms and guiding principles. TL;DR as the kids say: if it feels right, then it is right.
“What I’m saying is, you can tell the mood of the systems from the people who are supporting it. That is what true legacy is, it’s the human history of a company.”