The Paradoxes of Life and Business

Life and business are full of interesting paradoxes if you stop to think about them. Here are a few that I’ve noticed:

1. Everyone wants certifications, no one wants to learn.

It’s interesting how many people want to collect professional certifications and add letters after their names, but don’t actually want to put in the work to learn the material. They’re looking for the easy way to career advancement without realizing that real learning matters more than pieces of paper. Knowledge and skills are what make you stand out, not abbreviations.

2. Everybody talks about using AI to enhance their jobs, no one talks about actually doing the job.

There is so much buzz about how artificial intelligence and automation will change the future of work. Experts talk about how AI will make jobs easier and workers more efficient. But there’s little discussion of actually buckling down, being responsible, and working hard right now even without these futuristic tools. Good old-fashioned work ethic seems to be going out of style while we await an AI-powered workplace utopia.

3. We glorify entrepreneurship but look down on risk.

Popular culture praises entrepreneurship as the epitome of career success. But at the same time, we discourage risk-taking and making mistakes at all costs. Society gives mixed messages by idealizing startup founders who take bold risks while also shaming failure and instability in your work life. But the truth is every entrepreneur has failed at some point and taken major risks that could have doomed their business. Risk is inherent and mistakes are unavoidable when trying something new.

4. Everyone complains about being busy but no one prioritizes effectively.

Ask anyone how they’re doing these days and you’ll likely hear “busy!”. Everybody is so busy and overworked all the time. Or so we like to believe. But being constantly busy nowadays seems more like a badge of honor and less a reality of modern work. If everyone examined their workflows honestly, they’d admit much of each day is spent on less efficient habits. Just because your calendar looks packed doesn’t mean you’re spending time on the right priorities that move the needle. Being truly productive means saying no to busyness and tackling your most important projects first. Stop complaining about a crowded schedule and take control of it instead.

What other paradoxes of work and life have you noticed? Share in the comments if you have examples to add!

The Dizzying Variety of Software Approaches

The endless varierty of software development frameworks and acronym-heavy approaches should not inspire confidence despite the software sector’s enthusiasm for each new fad. Rather, the continual emergence of enew approaches signifies an industry burdened by ignorance and arrogance – with little meaningful progress towards reliability or consensus on what really matters..

No Consensus, No Clue

The popularity of competing approaches points to a stunning lack of consensus on the fundamentals of building reliable, quality products. Sound software can be delivered by following core principles of disciplined engineering, yet no one is doing so, nor seems interested in learning how. Most organizations seem more concerned with jumping on the bandwagon of the latest viral framework than understanding how to critically assess the needs of their specific products and teams. Too many teams rig their workflow to fit a fashionable development approach rather than objectively analyzing how to build software properly given constraints. This suggest a worrisome ignorance of what software engineering excellence entails.

Fads Reign

Rather than chasing fads aiming to tame inherent dysfunction, software organisations might choose to focus on nurturing capability. With the right foundation of competent collaboration towards common goals, delivering meaningful software becomes simpler – no convoluted processes required. The scarcity of investment in systematic skills training and institutional knowledge transfer remains suspect. Why don’t more companies promote engineering excellence through rigorous apprenticeship models? One rerason is – who would provide these models? The industry is too juvenile to be able to agree on such a model. The fascination with process over people points to deep arrogance and denial of what causes products to succeed or fail in reality.

A Bullshit Job? Non Grazie

The idea of a “bullshit job” was coined by anthropologist David Graeber to describe jobs that people feel provide no true value or meaning. As he puts it, bullshit jobs are those where the workers themselves cannot justify the job’s existence, yet often find it in their own financial interest to pretend their work has purpose.

That’s not for me. 50 years in the software industry has left me with an ultra fine-tuned spidey sense for bullshit jobs. Which nowadays is ALL of them. Yes. ALL of them. There’s not an organisation out there that has the first clue about what they’re doing. And no enhusiasm, it seems, for doing anything about it.

Pointless

In my experience working in software, many organisations fall into this trap of creating jobs that are pointless, even to those doing the work. It’s not that the individual engineers, designers, or product managers lack talent or capability. Rather, it’s that the wider organisation has no clear strategy, vision, or alignment. So you end up with teams spinning their wheels on goals that get shifted every quarter to “align” with some new executive idea. No one working has a clear view of the “why” behind their day-to-day. And see: Man’s Search For Meaning (Frankl).

Suck It Up

Without a North Star guiding decisions, every new task feels like bullshit. Why are we building this feature? Who asked for this metric dashboard? What issue is this even solving for customers? No one knows. The jobs become more about optics or vanity metrics than actual impact. Just put something out to say you shipped. Take home you wage cheque at the end of the week. Suck it up.

And so in that environment, each job functions in a void – you’re just there to clock in and write some code, run some tests, create some slides. The connection between daily work and real-world value is tenuous at best.

Executives Are Clueless

In a field like software, this lack of organisational clarity is almost unavoidable. Most executives have no foundational theory of software economics, development process, or product design. So they copy the latest fads, and trust metrics over reasoning. But without leadership willing to study the domain deeply, every job beneath feels like a bullshit shaping of air.

Is There A Solution?

One solution lies in organisations taking the time to learn, form opinions, and craft strategy rooted in software fundamentals. Only then can you trace the “why” from engineering tasks back up to true customer value. This at least grounds jobs in purpose, even if outcomes still have uncertainty.

Until more software groups commit to that educational journey, the prevalence of bullshit jobs will only increase. Because no matter how advanced the space becomes, lolks’ core mental models for running companies and teams remains severely lacking.

There’s None So Blind As They That Won’t See

It would be one thing to say “There’s none as blind as those who cannot see.” This would simply state that those lacking physical sight are the most blind. However, by saying “There’s none so blind as they that won’t see” (Jonathan Swift) the meaning completely shifts.

The word “won’t” implies choice, intention, and agency. It suggests that some people possess the full capability for sight and awareness, yet intentionally choose not to use it. The blindness shifts from physical to willful, from inability to stubborn refusal.

This quote therefore highlights how those who deliberately ignore facts, truths, and realities right in front of them are far more impaired than those who want to see clearly but cannot. It is an active denial, not just an unfortunate circumstance. The blindness resides not in the eyes, but in the mind and heart.

By using “won’t” instead of “can’t,” the quote calls out those who possess the means for sight yet defiantly choose blindness out of ulterior motives like prejudice, fear, laziness, or fixed ideologies. Their refusal reflects close-mindedness and intentional self-delusion. This makes their blindness in some ways less excusable and more severe.

So in short, the use of “won’t” powerfully conveys the agency and responsibility behind willful blindness. It distinguishes it from unavoidable sightlessness, underscores how it reflects stubborn barriers within, and suggests that overcoming such blindness depends on increased honesty, courage, and openness to confronting hard truths.