Single point of failure | #16

If you care about something you should talk about it and share it with the world, because if you go away, what's stopping it from going away too?

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I don’t want to be a linchpin (a single point of failure). If I disappear one day and the things I care about don’t get taken care of, there’s a problem. If things are relying on me to the extent that if I fail or buckle or disappear then the thing fails too, then I failed long ago. If you care about something, if you care that it gets done, then you need to make sure it can out last you.

The issue

It’s easy, and probably very common to think that you’re special. That only you can do what you do. This is dangerous. Especially if you care about what you do. Maybe it’s unlikely that anyone else could do it the way you do it, that is what makes you special, that flavour, the pzazz. But if it doesn’t get done at all without you then either you don’t care enough, or it’s vanity. The more common reality is that without you it’ll get done, just by someone else, but it’ll be bad until they eventually learn how to do it. 

I’d wager that if you’ve ever felt this way then it’s because of vanity, or arrogance. I’m sure the vast majority of people are guilty of this to some extent, myself included. Because if you’re doing a good job of something, if you’re succeeding, then it's easy to think that if you didn’t do it, things would fail. 

For example, say you’re the CEO of a billion dollar company that you founded in your spare time. You worked tooth and nail to make it a success, and it is. Congratulations to your hypothetical self, have a biscuit. From there it’s not a large jump to think, ‘well, no one else could do what I do, I’ve made it this far, without me everything would fail’. This is a logical fallacy, and simple nonsense. It’s pride. If you want something to out last you, this has to be nonsense. 

Because if one day you fall sick, or get hit by a bus, get falsely accused and sent to jail, or get abducted by aliens, and you want the things that you do to go on, someone has to do them. Either that means they have to learn how to be as special as you and in the meantime probably not do nearly as well as you did, or the thing fails and goes with you.

Photo by Bradyn Trollip on Unsplash

A solution

Show your work. Write things down. Document what you do and how you do it so other people might learn how to do it too. I find a lot of people have an instinctive allergic reaction to this idea. They think that if they share what they do and how they do it people will copy them, steal their ideas, and take credit for their work. A fear of competition, of someone beating you at what you do. 

But there are a few things fundamentally floored with this argument. First, if someone is copying you, that means you’re worth copying, congratulations, you have an admirer, have another biscuit. Second, if someone is stealing your ideas and you truly are the only one who can do what you do, so what? They won’t be able to do it as well as you, no one is going to care about theirs. And third, if you do follow this solution, if you do write things down and show how you do things then you have irrefutable proof that it is your work that they’re ripping off.

Documenting your work really does just mean writing it down. Write documentation, diaries, journals, how-to guides, create videos, heck, even tweeting about it is something.  But showing your work takes this one step further, it’s about publishing your writings down so that it's easy to find, so that people can learn what you do and be inspired by what you do. 

If you’re lucky enough to already know people who care about the same things you do, then heck, they’ll be able to help you, they can make what you do easier, or better. Be a scenius. If you’re not that lucky yet, then this is how you find them. Because by showing your work, if you do disappear, if someone cares enough to do what you do, it’ll be easy for someone to pick up and what you care about will last. 

Conclusion

Single points of failure are silly. If they occur I imagine the root cause is vanity, or a lack of foresight. If you care about what you do, and you want it to out last you, you need to make sure you are not a single point of failure. It’s easy to think that no one else could do what you do, but it’s important that someone can, or that you make it easy for someone to. Because if you have to stop doing what you’re doing for some reason, if you’re a single point of failure, it’ll stop with you. So for goodness sake, show your work. 

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

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