Storytelling through Analogies
When filmmakers conceive a project, they typically develop a pitch, which is a persuasive presentation designed to sell their concept to potential investors or studio executives. The Hollywood filmmakers often face daunting challenges when pitching their movie ideas to studios. The daunting nature of this initial phase is amplified by the fact that the task of presenting the movie idea to the studios rests on the shoulders of just a small contingent within the filmmaking team.
In the 1970s, filmmakers Dan O’Bannon and Ron Shusett faced a big challenge: how to sell their idea of a scary alien movie to Hollywood bigwigs. Their solution? They pitched it as“Jaws in Space.”
Similar to the way “Jaws” terrified audiences in 1975, the creators aimed for their extraterrestrial narrative to elicit the same reaction. This concept was realized in the blockbuster film “Alien,” which was directed by Ridley Scott and featured Sigourney Weaver in a star-making role. Released in 1979, “Alien” has grossed over $100 million globally.
Why did it work? Because O’Bannon and Shusett could connect their idea to something their audience already understood using an analogy. The studio representatives had likely seen Jaws and could use this knowledge to imagine the big idea behind Alien.
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I work at Cisco, and my role revolves around designing experiences for AppDynamics, which functions in the complex domain of Observability. When I started the job, I was often asked by friends and relatives, “What does your company do?”. And I often started by explaining Application Performance Monitoring and Observability, and bleh! I would see them nod with a puzzled expression, trying to convince me that they were capable enough to understand what I just blabbered. No follow-ups, no other questions and the topic of the conversations would switch abruptly.
I definitely could have done a better job of explaining what I did. Thus, I pondered how I could make this simple. Voila! I had it. The solution wasn’t out of the box, but I had been doing it all my life. Analogies!
Creating stories has always been my way of articulating and connecting things, from aspirations to drawing parallels between what’s going on in my life and the people and experiences I encounter. So, I came up with a story for this, too, and here is my narrative.
“In today’s world, all businesses are shifting to online platforms to provide solutions relying on software and infrastructure. Let’s understand this with an analogy. A human body (business organisation) is a complex network of organs (software, infrastructure, cloud information, data, etc.). Any issue in any organ hinders the proper functioning of the body. AppDynamics is like a doctor who diagnoses the problem and helps determine the exact location of the problem.” And it worked!
Why should one use Analogies?
Analogies are powerful tools for explaining complex scenarios. They draw comparisons to more recognizable ideas. Let’s explore their significance:
- Clarity: Analogies simplify complex ideas by relating them to something familiar, making them easier for audiences to grasp. Analogies provide clarity and enhance understanding by comparing the unfamiliar to the familiar.
- Engagement: Analogies capture attention and engage audiences by tapping into their existing knowledge and experiences. They create a connection between the audience and the subject matter, making it more relatable and interesting.
- Visualisation: Analogies help people visualise abstract concepts by painting a mental picture using familiar imagery. This visualisation aids in comprehending and retaining information, making the scenario more memorable.
- Bridge Gaps: Analogies act as connectors between disparate knowledge fields. They enable experts to convey complex concepts to laypersons or people belonging to different fields, thereby promoting collaboration efforts and mutual comprehension.
- Perspective Shift: Analogies encourage a shift in perspective by framing a problem or scenario in a new light. They prompt audiences to consider the situation differently, leading to fresh insights and creative solutions.
- Emotional Connection: Analogies evoke emotions by associating the scenario with familiar feelings or experiences. This emotional connection can help audiences relate to the topic more deeply, fostering empathy and motivation.
- Universal Understanding: Analogies transcend cultural and linguistic barriers, making them effective communication tools in diverse settings. They provide a common ground for communication, enabling people from different backgrounds to understand complex concepts.
Enterprise solutions are often very complex, which makes it very difficult when trying to articulate them to a broader audience. Moreover, the sheer scale of these solutions means that even your own team members might be unaware of the specifics of your work. Using analogies can help to close that knowledge gap.
Let’s illustrate this with a fairly complex example (unless you’re a developer or a DevOps person). I recall the time when I was designing database monitoring for the Oracle Database cluster. I wanted some quick feedback, but it was imperative to start by explaining the structure to my colleagues. Hence, I had two approaches — start with the technical details and explain the structure or tell a story.
Explanation 1
- Services and Instances: Each Oracle database cluster typically comprises multiple services, and each service can have multiple instances. This relationship is commonly described as one-to-many, where one service is load balanced across multiple instances to provide redundancy and scalability.
- Instances and Hosts: Service instances can run on one or multiple hosts. This relationship is indeed many-to-one, as multiple instances may share the same physical or virtual host for deployment. This architecture allows for load balancing and fault tolerance.
- Instances on Multiple Hosts: Instances of the same service can reside on multiple hosts. This distributed deployment ensures high availability and fault tolerance by spreading the workload across different physical or virtual machines.
- Query Execution: A single query issued to a service can be routed to multiple instances for execution. This mechanism is part of Oracle’s workload management and high availability features, allowing queries to be distributed across available instances to optimise performance and ensure consistent service availability.
- Performance Metrics Variability: The performance metrics of instances can indeed vary for the same query due to factors such as differences in hardware resources, network latency, and workload distribution. Monitoring and managing these performance metrics is crucial for optimising database performance and ensuring consistent service levels.
Explanation 2
- Services and Instances: In the coaching centre (cluster), consider each coaching batch a “service.” Each batch (service) consists of multiple students, who are the “instances” within that batch. Just like different coaching batches offer the same subject or course, different services in the database cluster provide the same functionality or access to the database.
2. Instances and Hosts: Picture the classrooms in the coaching centre as the “hosts.” Multiple students (instances) from different batches can attend classes in the same classroom (host). This mirrors the relationship between instances and hosts in the database cluster, where multiple instances can run on the same physical or virtual server.
3. Instances on Multiple Hosts: Just as different coaching batches can have classes in different classrooms, instances of the same service can run on multiple hosts. This distributed deployment ensures availability and load balancing, similar to how classes are spread across different classrooms to accommodate all students.
4. Query Execution: Imagine a common question paper (query) being given to students in different coaching batches. Similarly, queries in the database can be routed to multiple instances for execution. This parallels how a single question is attempted by students in different batches, optimising the use of resources and ensuring efficient performance.
5. Performance Metrics Variability: Consider how students’ performance may vary for the same question paper. Similarly, the performance metrics of instances in the database cluster can vary for the same query due to factors like hardware differences, workload distribution, and network latency.
I’m sure you now have a mental image of abstract data and relationships. Though you didn’t know anything about Oracle database clusters, now you have a fair understanding, which engages you in interacting with the presenter and asking further questions.
Analogies aren’t limited to explaining complex setups but can be used elsewhere, like user research and interviews, design documentation and presentation, tutorials, content strategy and brainstorming.
