On This Side of the Table
A table is something we’ve all encountered in one of its many forms. When examined more closely or abstracted away from our human experience, it’s simply an object or noun . Like all objects or nouns, tables are identified by attributes like adjectives that explain their purpose.
By providing many practical functions, the table can support our dinner discussions, our recanting of dreams and storing our data. Whether in the midst of a brain storm or as the negotiation table, our worlds can change with just one instance of its many types of existence.
2014, a year I will always remember as being a pivotal point in my career. I decided to venture down the path of product building. Post my seat in investment banking, I found myself engaging in routine conversations with people of all walks of life. A hard but fun feat to endeavor, it produced the opportunity to discover potential users and their methods of choice when searching for things they wanted.
Imagine being presented with a vision that you interpreted based on interactions with society. Now, equally imagine taking your interpretation and translating your findings to an engineer with hopes of conceiving your learnings to reality. These moments typically occur around a table as these conversations ultimately determine how a product’s fate will be constructed.
The day arrived, when I found myself seated across from two developers and I became enthralled about the endless possibilities. The challenge was figuring out how to best explain the data collected, our strategy and most importantly what it meant with regard to the general product vision.
In these moments, I learned that communicating abstract concepts inferred from experiences about subjective topics was difficult. The complexity of being non technical and building a product would soon inspire me to change my seat at the table.
In 2016, in order to reduce my lack of knowledge as to why models and abstraction were the best means to flesh out any idea led me to start coding. As failure taught me many lessons, the drive to create eventually unveiled fruitful learnings. Programming became an infatuation for me. I considered learning to code a beautiful opportunity that I could not pass on gaining a deeper understanding of. After closing our start-up, my determination and end goal to embody both sides of the table had begun.
The chance of a lifetime is upon me, present day 2018. Like a constructor, programming has now become a vehicle for me to instantiate new ideas and interactions via the world about.
My new found love is also a tool, that if cultivated will grow my abilities and at minimum yield subtle personal achievements. Through this medium of creation I am able to display facets of my expression, passion and most importantly, the ability to fulfill my purpose.
In the end, no matter which side of the table we are seated, by seeking knowledge, love and passion we have the ability to express ourselves and experience our journey lively. What type of table will you build?
