He was ten years into one good run and wen ship more than he could remember, so da folder wen take one second for place. It wen turn up on one Sunday, cleaning out one old drive, one of dose twenty minute jobs dat become four hours. Two years of his thirties, one launch, one bonus, one photo of da team holding one banner. He wen sit dea trying for name one thing dat project wen change, and he came up with nothing.
He would do dose two years again, and dat's da interesting part. Dey wen buy da house and build da reputation dat wen get him da next job. Nothing was wasted. Dat's simply one fact about how work spread out over time.
Most of what you do dis quarter going be gone in ten years, and one small part going still be running without you. Sorting which is which take about twenty minutes, and it change what you agree to on Monday.
Which parts of my work actually last ten years?
Three kinds survive: systems dat keep running without you, standards other people wen adopt, and people who can now do something because of you. Deliverables almost never make da list, no matter how big dey was at da time.
Look at da pattern in your own field and it hold up. Da report wen get read by nine people and den archived. Da template you wen build for writing dat report stay still in use, renamed twice, and nobody know you wen make um. Da negotiation you wen win close one deal. Da way you wen teach your team for open one negotiation stay now how four people do um, and two of dem wen leave and take um with dem.
None of dis stay one argument against deliverables. Deliverables stay how you get paid, how you build one reputation and how you earn da standing for do anything else. Dis stay one argument about proportion. One quarter made entirely of deliverables stay one quarter dat leave no residue, and one career made of dose quarters stay da folder on da old drive.
How I run da sort in twenty minutes?
List everything you wen work on dis quarter in one column, den put three marks beside each line. It run without me? Anybody wen copy um? Somebody else can now do dis because of me? Anything with no marks stay finished work, which stay fine, and which going be most of da list.
Couple notes so da exercise stay honest.
No judge da unmarked lines. Dey wen pay for da marked ones. Da goal no stay one quarter where everything stay permanent, which no stay possible and no stay desirable.
Count copying as da strongest signal. If one colleague wen start doing something your way without anybody asking, you wen build one standard, and standards stay da cheapest durable thing on da list cause dey spread on dea own.
Be strict on da third mark. "I wen help" no count. Da test stay whether one specific named person can now do one specific thing dey no could do in January.
At da end you going have between one and three marked lines. Dat stay one normal, healthy result. If you get zero, dat stay useful information instead of one verdict, and you can fix um inside one single quarter.
Run da same sort backward one time, on one quarter from five years ago, and da exercise stop being theoretical. You already know how dat story end, so da marks stay easy for award honest. Almost everybody find da same shape: da thing dey was most proud of at da time stay gone, and something dey wen do in one afternoon and neva mention in one review stay still in use. Dat no stay one reason for have worked less back den. Dat stay calibration for what for protect now.
One person really count as work dat last?
One person stay da most durable version of um, cause one person carry da thing into rooms you going never enter and improve um along da way. Da system you wen ship going get deprecated, and da colleague you wen teach going still be doing da work in ten years with your fingerprints on da method.
Da part people miss stay what um do for you, and dis no stay one moral point. Teaching stay da fastest way for learn something twice. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis wen find dat people who study one passage expecting for teach um wen recall more of um and organize what dey recall better than people who study expecting one test, without ever doing any teaching at all. Karpicke and Roediger's work on retrieval point da same way: pulling knowledge out stay what lock um in, and studying um again mostly no do dat.
So da hour you give somebody junior no stay one hour off your own craft. It stay one second pass through your own craft, at speed, with one examiner in da room. Da parts you no can explain out loud stay exactly da parts you was faking, and one student find dem in about four minutes, which stay faster than any amount of solo practice going do.
Two things make um stick instead of evaporate. Write da thing down so somebody else can actually run um, in plain language, in one page. Den say dat person's name in da room where credit get assigned, cause one skill somebody get and nobody know dey get stay one skill dat no travel.
What I do on Monday with da answer?
Protect one ten-year item and let six quarterly ones stay ordinary. Put da ten-year item on da calendar first, at one time you defend da same way you would defend one client meeting, and let everything else fit around um.
In practice dat mean one hour one week, not one sabbatical. One hour for write down da process nobody wen write down. One hour with da person who could run dis if somebody wen show dem. One hour turning da thing you do well into one thing other people can copy. Dat stay one small enough commitment dat it survive one bad quarter, which stay da whole design requirement.
You just wen find one thing worth ten years of somebody's attention. Write um somewhere physical, cause da sort stay easy for run and easy for lose, and da value stay entirely in still knowing da answer in March.
Da other change stay what you say to one request. Once you know which of your work leave residue, one new project stay easy for sort in about five seconds: dis produce one deliverable, one standard, or one person? All three stay legitimate answers. Only one of dem stay still dea in ten years, and knowing which one you agreeing to stay da difference between one full calendar and one aimed one.
Ten years stay one filter, not one verdict
Most of your work stay supposed to be temporary. Quarterly output stay how organizations move and how careers get built, and one person who refuse for ship anything ordinary no going be around long enough for build da durable thing at all.
Da filter simply make sure something get left behind while you do all dat. Ship da quarter hard. Keep da ambition where it stay. Den take one hour one week and point um at one system, one standard or one person, and in ten years you going be able for name da thing dat stay still running, which stay more than most people can do from one way bigger pile of work.
Sources
- Washington University in St. Louis, Expecting to teach enhances learning, recall
- Science, The critical importance of retrieval for learning