SUPERALGOS PROJECT

What Is and What Isn’t a Contribution that Adds Value

Value creation vs. work, the value of work, work in progress, and partial deliveries.

Julian Molina

Published in

Superalgos | Algorithmic Trading

5 min readDec 9, 2021

In my previous article about Why We Reward Value Creation Only I explained the motivations behind the project’s design of incentives. However, I didn’t get to define what constitutes value creation and what doesn’t. Let’s explore the matter and, hopefully, make things clear.

Value Creation vs. Work

Let’s say I have a box on the ground floor of my building, but I need that box on the third floor. If the only requirement is getting the box where it’s needed, how I take the box to the third floor doesn’t affect the value of the outcome.

It doesn’t matter if I use the lift, or if I take the stairs. It doesn’t matter if a neighbor helps me or not. It doesn’t matter if I go down to the basement first and then go back up.

It doesn’t matter if I walk or run. It doesn’t matter if I take the box to the post office to have the mailman deliver the box on the third floor.

In each of the above cases, the amount of work put in accomplishing the task may vary widely. However, provided that the box gets to the third floor in the proper shape, the value created is the same.

There is no correlation between work and value.

Creating value certainly requires some form of work. However, work doesn’t necessarily lead to creating value. Even when work produces value, the amount of work put in creating the value doesn’t necessarily represent the value created.

The Value of Work

What if I take the box to the third floor, but instead of leaving it there, I take it back to where it was on the ground floor?

You probably agree that the value of such work is zero.

Now, what if I pick up the box, take it out of the building, walk around the corner, enter the neighboring building, take the stairs to the third floor and leave the box there? Is that work valuable?

I hope you agree that the value of such work is still zero, if not negative.

Work for the sake of work has no value. Value is created when work fulfills a need.

The Value of Work-in-Progress

Now, what happens if I pick up the box and take it to the first floor?

It would seem that there is some value in that, as the box is closer to the third floor. However, if I need the box on the third floor, and the box is not there, then the value of the work doesn’t materialize. I simply can’t use the box on the third floor, because it’s not there.

Moreover, something may happen to the box while it’s on the first floor. Someone may take it elsewhere. Someone may drop it down the stairs. It may get lost. The cleaning person may get it wet while moping the floor, or whatever.

So, even when work advances in the desired direction, it is hard to establish if there is any value and what it may be, particularly when there is no guarantee that the job will ever be completed.

If the work-in-progress is unusable, then it probably adds little to no value.

The Value of Delivering Partial Work

Let’s say that the box is packing a brand new computer, but it’s too heavy for me to carry it on my own to the third floor and there’s no one there to help me. Still, I want to give it a shot and contribute something of value.

So I open the box, grab the CPU tower, and leave everything else in the box. I take the CPU tower to the third floor and connect the brand new CPU tower to an old monitor and keyboard.

I didn’t take the whole box to the third floor. However, I did take the main component of the PC and hooked it up with other required components so that it may be used.

The user won’t be able to take the new PC to its full potential as it’s lacking a mouse and the old monitor offers a poor resolution. But still, the user may start playing with the basic configuration, connect to the Internet, install software, and so on.

But, what if I took the mouse instead of the PC tower? How useful would that be? Or what if I took the CPU tower to the third floor only to leave it behind a cabinet?

There are smart ways to deliver partial work that create value. How much value your partial work creates depends on how you frame the delivery.

Get Shit Done!

I hope the above makes it clear that doing things is not the same as getting shit done. You add value when you get shit done.

Please consider this when you are thinking about what your next contribution should be. Take all this into account when you plan your roadmap and deliverables.

Think about this when you are deciding what you should and shouldn’t include in your next Proof of Value Report. You should only claim work that has been delivered in a usable state. Leave work-in-progress for the next distribution event, or for whenever it is delivered.

And also think about this when you vote for other teams’ claims.

Placing or supporting claims for work instead of value creation goes against Superalgos’ core principles, makes the project vulnerable to attacks, limits scalability, and makes us all less efficient.

If you can’t see why that is the case, please read my post about Why We Reward Value Creation Only.

Mastering Contributions

You just read an article in the Mastering Contributions series exploring some of the crucial aspects of the Superalgos Collaboration. To continue your journey learning about how to contribute to Superalgos, just keep reading: