Danger of Being "Un-teamy"​ Ahead

There’s a lot we don’t talk about in the business world. A lot of silences, a lot of impostor syndrome at play and a heap load of impression management from everyone’s side at all times. We say a lot we may not truly mean and we bite our tongue and remain silent about far too many things that would deserve pointing out. It’s a world of convention and accepted half-truths disguised as “professionalism”. I’ve raged against this status quo numerous times in my books and articles but I’ve always found the technology community to be my solace and safe heaven from the “fakery” surrounding us everywhere else.

I’m not neurotypical enough to withstand the pressure of pretending. It is a genuine handicap and it has often come to bite my in my brushes with the corporate world. Small talk, wooden language, displays of absolute inauthenticity, they all grate me. Combined with how there’s a solid element of unfairness coming into the fact that we hide behind words or convention, because the subterfuges simply hinder us and stop us from genuinely thriving and that’s irrational and unfair to both the business and the individuals, I often find the behaviours of the business world deeply unsettling. Again, in the tech community there is a lot less of that discomfort because the vibe is supremely more open and honest.

Furthermore, within the technology community at large, the DevOps savvy folk are a true tribe and the open-hearted nature of the discourse has always been fundamental to carry the big product ambitions.

All that said, I see signs that this formerly "teamy" place we have blissfully been operating in is changing and it isn’t for the best.

The community always operated from a place where there is an assumed eternal fountain of good will, knowledge share and common technology-based goals. Almost as if, relatively-sheltered from the everyday operational demands of the business, techies get to think, imagine, co-create and freely experiment without the constraints of how business models would allow or disallow any of those goals.