Cathedral builder and DevOps

Adopted from a well known anecdote:

A man came across few masons who were working at cutting chunks of granite from large blocks. The first seemed unhappy at his job, chipping away and frequently looking at his watch. When the man asked what it was that he was doing, the first mason responded, rather curtly, “I’m hammering this stupid rock, and I can’t wait ’til 5 when I can go home.”

A second mason, seemingly more interested in his work, was hammering diligently and when asked what it was that he was doing, answered, “Well, I’m molding this block of rock so that it can be used with others to construct a wall. It’s not bad work, but I’ll sure be glad when it’s done.

A third mason was hammering at his block fervently, taking time to stand back and admire his work. He chipped off small pieces until he was satisfied that it was the best he could do. When he was questioned about his work he stopped, gazed skyward and proudly proclaimed, “I…am building a cathedral!”

A fourth mason was sitting on a rock and fervently arguing with a fifth mason. When they were questioned about what they were doing, they answered, “Well, we are supposed to cut these rocks to build walls that make a Cathedral. We are discussing if we should use DevOps or a Stonecutter DevOps. One of us doesn’t feel plain DevOps fits our needs. We are arguing about which DevOps conference will help settle this matter”

Five stone cutters, all different attitudes, three getting work done, two not getting work done.

story adopted from: http://bestpracticesforbusiness.com/2010/05/07/purpose-in-motivation/