R.D. Laing's Knots (1970) is a book of psychology in concrete poetry form. It charts the patterns of psychological knots and binds we get ourselves into. From his introduction:
The patterns delineated here have not yet been classified by a Linnaeus of human bondage. They are all, perhaps, strangely, familiar. In these pages I have confined myself to laying out only some of those I actually have seen. Words that come to mind to name them are: knots, tangles, fankles, impasses, disjunctions, whirligogs, binds. I could have remained closer to the ‘raw’ data in which these patterns appear. I could have distilled them further towards an abstract logico-mathematical calculus. I hope they are not so schematized that one may not refer back to the very specific experiences from which they derive; yet that they are sufficiently independent of ‘content’, for one to divine the final formal elegance in these webs of maya.
Laing's knots reminded me of the patterns of human behaviour in offices, and I thought that something similar could be used to write a folk, amateurish psychopathology of everyday corporate life. So I started sketching out a version for software development and project management, picking up on project management's infamous "fast, cheap or good: privilege two" trope, and exaggerating the negative patterns of communication and behaviour that played out in the cubes and corridors. It never went far, and I never got to writing about the customers on the "outside".
I don't think I put them online at the time, so here they are, as drafted in about 2001. (Note that the unspoken - but self-evident - psychological backstory to the writing is that at the time I was going through the slow process of being minced by and then spat out of a company that I'd once loved entirely too much.) These days I'm still thinking about the patterns of human behaviour inside companies, and expect to write some more on that in due course.
Anyway.
1. Delivering making
Carol likes products that have good features, finish on time, and stay on budget.
Carol gives Bob a project: deliver a product that
- has good features,
- finishes on time,
- and stays on budget.
Bob likes to deliver products that have good features and finish on time.
Bob gives Alice the project: deliver a product that
- has good features,
- and finishes on time.
Alice likes to make products that have good features.
- Everyone knows this takes time.
Alice makes and delivers the good features to Bob.
Bob receives the product from Alice.
Bob's product has good features, which is good.
- But it was late, which is bad.
- Something must be done.
Carol receives the product from Bob.
Bob's product has good features, which is good.
- But it was late, which is bad,
- and it went over budget, which is also bad.
- Something must be done.
2. Knowing blaming
Alice knows this product is late.
Alice knows that Bob knows this product is late.
- She's afraid that he might punish her.
Bob knows this product is late.
Bob knows that Carol knows this product is late.
- He's afraid that she might punish him.
Carol is afraid that she might have to punish someone.
- when projects are late it makes her angry.
Carol thinks: why is this product late?
- She knows that it is not her fault - she did _her_ part.
- But is it Bob's fault or Carol's, if Bob didn't do his part?
Bob thinks: why is this product late?
- He knows that it is not his fault - he did _his_ part.
- But is it Alice's fault or Bob's, if Alice didn't do her part?
Alice thinks: why is this product late?
- She knows that it is not her fault - she did _her_ part.
3. Making selling
He says he cannot sell this product because it was late.
She says this product was late because he changed the features.
He says he cannot sell this product because it has the wrong features.
She says he cannot sell this product because he cannot explain the features.
He is frustrated. He says she doesn't understand when he explains
- what he wants to sell,
- that it must have the features in order to sell.
She is frustrated. She says he doesn't understand when she explains
- it's not possible to make the product he wants to sell,
- that he should sell something else.
He is angry
- that she doesn't see that he is frustrated,
- that she didn't make the right features,
- which makes him frustrated that she will not make them.
She is angry
- that he doesn't see that she is frustrated,
- that he didn't describe the right features,
- which makes her frustrated that he will not sell them.
I cannot sell it.
Because I do not have it to sell.
I could sell it if I had it.
- I cannot make it.
- Because I do not have the time.
- I would make it if I had time.
I cannot sell it.
Because it is no good.
It is no good because you make it badly.
I would sell it if it were good.
- (But what if it _is_ good, and I just can't sell it?)
- I cannot make it.
- Because I do not like it.
- I don't like it because your ideas for it are bad.
- I would make it if they were good.
- (But what if they _are_ good, and I just can't make it?)
You cannot make it
because you cannot make well.
- You cannot sell it
- because you cannot sell well.
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