With about 20 years professionally as a programmer, or engineering manager, I'm looking back at relations, professional relationships, where things are, have been and may be going.
Well, a quarter century ago, I worked in the woods chasing fire and smoke as part of an elite team of 'hotshots'. Part of that was using a shovel. Part was using a pulaski or a custom made 'super-p'. Some was running a chainsaw. A lot of it was using your head to stay safe. None of it in 1996 involved using a keyboard.
If you know that a chainsaw chain has a sawtooth, you're doing good. But what does the 'raker' part of the sawtooth do?
It's not just a little shark-fin on the chain, but it looks that way.
Stepping back a second:
WTH does this have to do with programming, with technical projects? With '0s' and '1s'? With continuous delivery? With infrastructure? With leading teams? With having a measured approach in a fast environment, when stakes are high, and when you need to just GSD?
Chain raker. It is a guide. It is the leader. It is a guide that helps the tooth (if sharp) do work. It leads the tooth, sets the depth, determines how much work is to be done.
If the raker is too tall (high), then the tooth does not get a big enough bite of wood to do work efficiently and you have to add extra pressure to get it to perform. Like having a dull cutting tooth, the 'dust' that is produced is fine and sort of a mix between chips and powder. A lot of work for a little output.
If the raker is too short (low), then the cutting tooth gets too much work at once. This causes 'grabbiness', potential kickback, and while you don't have to press extra hard to get work done, it is difficult to control. The chips produced are large and plentiful, but come with a difficult to control saw. When buried deep in a log it may stall out with too much of a bite. In general, you fight it as it bucks to get the job done.
Rakers that are the right height allow the sharp tooth to grab an efficient bite, and keep on chewing, getting it done quickly without negative feedback. It will spit out large chunks just like the rakers that are set too low, but there's not much bucking, kicking. It just cuts powerfully, smoothly, getting work done with minimal effort, quickly and efficiently.
This got me thinking of the technology paradigms that are related.
Consider that a professional chainsaw operates between about 10,000 rpm and 15,000 rpm, the raker's job is to guide the work efficiently, not too much at a time, nor too little, to get things done in a fast paced environment.
We have all seen what work looks like. We have seen a swarm of gnats around a team that is full speed ahead, but produces very little. We have seen teams buried in work, bucking every next feature, stalling out on new pivots. We have seen teams, chewing through work, efficiently, with little pressure applied... just getting it done.
This will be my spot to park some chips of things I've seen along the way. How on occasion it's good to sharpen the chain and adjust the rakers, sometimes to get it to take a little more, but never too much. We'll take a peek at how one connected component when out of whack with it's related piece can cause inefficiencies or stall out progress entirely... and we will look at just getting stuff done.
Stay tuned... I'm sharpening my saw.
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