Im don spend ten years dey do beta work, and im don ship pass wetin im fit remember, so e take am small time to remember wetin dat folder be. Na Sunday e jam am, as im dey clean old drive, one of dose twenty minute work wey go turn four hours. Two years of im thirties, one launch, one bonus, one photo of di team dey hold banner. Im sidon dey try name one single thing wey dat project change, and nothing come.
Im go still do dose two years again, and na dat one be di interesting part. Dat money buy di house and build di name wey carry am go di next job. Nothing waste. Na just how work dey spread over time.
Plenty of wetin you dey do dis quarter go don disappear for ten years time, and small part of am go still dey run without you. To sort which one be which one na like twenty minutes work, and e go change wetin you go gree do come Monday.
Which part of my work really dey last ten years?
Three kind dey survive: system wey dey run without you, standard wey odas copy, and person wey fit do something now because of you. Deliverables almost never enter di list, no matter how big dem be dat time.
Look di pattern for your own field and e go make sense. Nine people read dat report, den dem archive am. Di template wey you build to write dat report still dey work, dem don rename am twice, and nobody know say na you make am. Di negotiation wey you win close one deal. But di way you teach your team to open negotiation na how four people dey do am now, and two of dem don comot with am go anoda place.
None of dis na argument against deliverables. Deliverables na how you dey collect money, how you dey build name and how you dey earn di ground to do any oda thing. Na argument about balance. Quarter wey na deliverables only na quarter wey no leave any mark, and career wey full of dat kain quarter na di folder for di old drive.
How I go run di sort for twenty minutes?
Write everything wey you work on dis quarter for one column, den put three mark for each line. E dey run without me? Anybody copy am? Person fit do dis thing now because of me? Anything wey no get mark na work wey don finish, wey no bad at all, and na dat one go plenty pass for di list.
Small note so dat di exercise go stay honest.
No judge di lines wey no get mark. Dem pay for di ones wey get mark. Di goal no be quarter wey everything permanent, because dat one no possible and e no even sweet.
Count copying as di strongest sign. If your colleague start to dey do something your way and nobody tell am, you don build standard, and standard na di cheapest thing wey dey last for di list because e dey spread by imsef.
Be strict for di third mark. "I helped" no count. Di test na whether one particular person wey you fit name fit do one particular thing wey im no fit do for January.
For di end you go get between one and three lines wey get mark. Dat one na normal, healthy result. If you get zero, dat one na useful information, no be judgement, and you fit fix am inside one quarter.
Run di same sort backwards one time, on quarter from five years ago, and di exercise go stop to be theory. You already sabi how dat story end, so e easy to give di marks honestly. Almost everybody dey find di same shape: di thing wey dem proud pass dat time don disappear, and something wey dem do for one afternoon and never mention for review still dey work today. Dat no mean say make you for work less dat time. Na calibration for wetin you go protect now.
Person fit really count as work wey dey last?
Person na di most durable version of am, because person go carry di thing enter room wey you go never enter, and go still improve am for road. Di system wey you ship go later dey deprecated, but di colleague wey you teach go still dey do di work for ten years time with your fingerprint on di method.
Di part wey people dey miss na wetin e dey do for you, and dis no be moral talk. Teaching na di fastest way to learn something twice. Researchers for Washington University in St. Louis find say people wey study one passage with mind say dem go teach am remember more, and organise wetin dem remember better, pass people wey study with mind say test dey come, even though dem no teach anybody at all. Karpicke and Roediger work on retrieval point di same direction: to pull knowledge comot na wetin dey lock am inside, to just read am again no dey do much.
So di hour wey you give one junior person no be hour wey you tief from your own craft. Na second pass through your own craft, for speed, with examiner inside di room. Di parts wey you no fit explain with mouth na exactly di parts wey you dey form say you sabi, and student go find dem for like four minutes, wey fast pass any amount of solo practice.
Two things dey make am stick instead of evaporate. Write di thing down make anoda person fit really run am, for plain language, for one page. Den call dat person name for di room where dem dey share credit, because skill wey person get and nobody know say im get am na skill wey no dey travel.
Wetin I go do come Monday with di answer?
Protect one ten-year item and allow six quarterly ones stay ordinary. Put di ten-year item for calendar first, for time wey you go defend di way you go defend client meeting, den make everything else arrange around am.
For real life dat mean one hour every week, no be sabbatical. One hour to write down di process wey nobody don write down. One hour with di person wey fit run dis thing if somebody show am. One hour to turn di thing wey you dey do well into thing wey odas fit copy. E small enough to survive bad quarter, and na dat one be di whole design requirement.
You just find one thing wey worth ten years of somebody attention. Write am for somewhere physical, because di sort easy to run and easy to lose, and di whole value na to still sabi di answer come March.
Di oda change na wetin you go talk when request land. Once you sabi which of your work dey leave mark, new project easy to sort for like five seconds: dis one go produce deliverable, standard, or person? All three na correct answer. Na only one dey still dey there for ten years time, and to sabi which one you dey gree do na di difference between calendar wey full and calendar wey get aim.
Ten years na filter, no be judgement
Plenty of your work suppose be temporary. Quarterly output na how organisation dey move and how career dey build, and person wey refuse to ship anything ordinary no go last long enough to build di durable thing at all.
Di filter just dey make sure say something remain behind while you dey do all of dat. Ship di quarter well well. Keep your ambition where e dey. Den take one hour every week point am for system, standard or person, and for ten years time you go fit name di thing wey still dey run, wey pass wetin plenty people fit do from work wey plenty pass your own.
Sources
- Washington University in St. Louis, Expecting to teach enhances learning, recall
- Science, The critical importance of retrieval for learning