This is something dear to my heart, but it’s one of those phrases that can be taken two ways.
Allow me to clarify.
It is nothing to do with religion. I’m an atheist in any case.
What the phrase means is that I am trying to be an evangelist for ‘common sense’. In all things.
So much of what happens in the IT industry is driven by dogma, habit, ignorance and blind obedience to tradition. As soon as someone introduces a process, procedure, method or mechanism to support a particular activity, everyone involved in that activity stops thinking. It’s a very human failing that we tend to look for the much trodden path on the road from A to B. If someone hands us a map with a route highlighted on it, that’s the route we take, regardless of whether it’s a good route, or what we encounter on the way.
When instead you make yourself keep thinking, all the time, then that’s when the magic happens. That’s when you see the wood for the trees, spot the shortcut, find the pot of gold that’s off the beaten track. That’s when you get there first, ahead of all those peering myopically at that creased up old map you all got given. That’s when you not only win the race, but walk away with all the treasure.
Thinking is where it’s at. It’s why humans are the dominant species on the planet. We’re very good at it; an ingenious, creative and industrious species.
So my mission is to say that no problem should ever be solved just by punching in the tried and tested procedure and turning the handle. We can train monkeys to do that.
Think about it.
Use your common sense.
Use your training and experience.
Work with others.
Puzzle it out.
Do it BETTER.
