07 December 2021

In What Context?

You pass an old mare at pasture as you approach the farmhouse-style tech office. You enter the office and head to the conference room.

“We should kill it.” You hear.

“Yeah, it’s old, and no one uses it anymore, and it wastes resources keeping it live.”

“Agreed. Becky, let’s kill HORSE.”

“Don’t kill the horse!” You picture the old mare.

“What? We’re talking about HORSE, the High Output Recipient Scaling Engine. It’s a legacy service, and no applications call it anymore.”

Did I mention you’re in Silicon Farm?

We’re bound to enter conversations or projects late—we don’t know the history, and we’re not up to speed on the latest discussion. It’s confusing and frustrating and furthers the idea of imposter syndrome that ravages professional confidence. If you find yourself confused, a great question to ask is, “In what context?”

Most problems are knotted balls of yarn. Before you can start to unravel them, you must know which yarn ball you’re handling. “In what context?” identifies the yarn ball.