"They're looking for funding," he said. This was a surprise, since everything to date had been painted in very bright lines of "this is important and will happen".
So this prompted the question: are we working for cheapskates?
Not too long ago I had an interview with a firm that builds out solutions for health care and financial services providers. It was appealing to me because I am interested in both of those industries, and functionally it's similar to what I already do. When describing my transferable skills, I launched into familiar refrains: cutting costs, curtailing choices, and addressing very specific functionality.
Imagine my surprise when I was asked how I would pitch a solution that generates revenue.
It clicked - I've been working for so long in an environment that is focused on lowering costs, headcount, doing rote repeatable work on the cheap, that I've forgotten what it means to present something of value. Saving money is always valuable of course, but how does one generate value? What does one do with those savings?
The conversation is echoed in the current political climate. There is much talk of cutting spending, lowering taxes, less, less, less, but not so much talk about what to build. Good idea or bad, what is the value in building a high-speed rail network, or funding education, or subsidizing childcare for the poor?
In an IT world, it's easy to reduce, reduce, reduce, to do less work. But what about more, more, more, increasing productivity, higher costs leading to disproportionately higher service levels?
