The Smartest Person In The Room
Confucius, reinterpreted for the modern Grand Game of Software Engineering.
Confucius had many interesting and thoughtful things to say about life, and the best way to go about living it, alas many of the old sage’s sayings don’t quite cut it, literally, in modern times.
We must therefore go deeper, as contemporary progressive engineers, to understand how these dictums from antiquity can be reinterpreted and therefore be of valuable use in today’s management riddled world.
Take the following quote, as an example.
“If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room.”
- Confucius
The literal meaning here is that if you’re the smartest person then you need to move on as you won’t learn anything by hanging around where you are.
This is one thing that we progressives tend to do, whether it’s moving from project to project, company to company, or seeking out the elders of progressive knowledge themselves within the grand game and absorbing their esoteric knowledge of opening moves, mid-game strategies, and end game solutions.
How else would we be able to outwit the continual machinations of the corporate management machine, the meat grinder of mandatory fun pressed onto us from endless HR drones, or just minimise the…
