Outer Solar System

Entering the area of gas and ice giants

What follows is part 3 of my ongoing observations and ideas inspired by “Project Hail Mary”. You can find part 1 and part 2 linked here. Once again, I will warn those wary of spoilers to maybe stop reading, NOT click those links, bookmark this, and come back later.

Culture is one thing. Boundaries are another

If you’ve been out in the workforce for any amount of time you’ve probably run into this situation: A coworker has a habit that is… let’s just call it “challenging”. You struggle to deal with it and remain focused on your work. And you can’t ask them to stop or change because it’s rooted in the other person’s culture. It’s not just a bad (or annoying) habit, or behavior, or belief. It’s a core part of who they are.

In many organizations, IT is an incredibly vibrant blend of cultures, experiences, and outlooks. We are better for it. But that doesn’t mean that diversity doesn’t bring challenges.

“Project Hail Mary” asks us to consider that scenario when you and said coworker are from completely different planets, light years (literally 70 trillion miles) from home, and attempting to save all life on your respective races.

THAT, my friends, is “culture shock”.

Consider just one scene: in both the book and the movie, Rocky shows up at Grace’s doorstep (ok, the airlock of his ship). The movie diverges from the book in what happens next, but the point is the same: In both, Rocky “moves in” to Grace’s space. The reasons are logical, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s an intrusion. It requires adjustments, good humor, and grace (the outlook, not the doctor).

Luckily we and our coworkers aren’t from different planets. Even if we come from cultures that are more or less direct; define “polite” in different ways; are ok with cooking certain foods in the shared microwave; or are comfortable with a larger or smaller distance between speakers we can all understand that other people DON’T share those attributes. We can read the room (and ask for confirmation when we aren’t sure we’ve read it correctly).

By showing us the ultimate example of that experience – two individuals who literally couldn’t be more different – we can reflect on our own attitude toward the give-and-take that happens in the workplace.

“It’s a human thing”

Continuing with the previous idea, I thought this adaptation by Grace and Rocky was brilliant:

Grace (narrating) We have an unspoken agreement that cultural things just have to be accepted. It ends any minor dispute.

Both Grace and Rocky have too much on the line to get bogged down with petty annoyances or the need to understand the other person’s reasons minor actions. And so they create a shortcut past it.

I believe we, in IT, with the aforementioned diversity, could benefit greatly from the same shortcut. Everything from the way we come into the office to our social interactions to the way we code is, often, deeply rooted in our background – how and when and where we grew up, entered the workforce, learned our current tech skills. And very often, none of that matters. Whether someone codes in a plain text editor or an IDE, whether they dress up or down, whether they eat alone in their car or in a loud crowded table in the cafeteria – none of these things critically impacts the work we do.

And so we ought to have the ability to head off discussions with – if not “It’s a human thing.” then how about “It’s a ‘me’ thing.” and know that this answer will be sufficient and unchallenged.

I’ll watch you sleep

One of the first cross-cultural experiences Grace and Rocky have is when Rocky insists he be present to watch Grace as he sleeps. The reason comes later – For Eridians, sleep manifests as complete unconciousness and inability to be woken. It is the ultimate state of vulnerability. And therefore they evolved not only the social habit of keeping an eye on a sleeping individual, but the cultural imperative to do so.

Initially this is confusing to Grace, but, for all the reasons I covered earlier in this blog, he accepts it and even comes to appreciate it. He certainly is able to understand Rocky’s need to BE watched while he sleeps.

Along with the lessons about appreciating other cultures (again, which I’ve already covered) I think there’s another lesson for us in tech: Who has your back? How do we ask? How do we show up to let others know we have theirs?

To be fair, we probably don’t need someone to watch over us while we nap at our desk. But IT is full of situations where we need people to look over our shoulder – at code review, when preparing for a presentation, or when editing a blog post – just to name a few.

Summary

Our journey is almost done. In the next blog I plan to talk about the lessons “Project Hail Mary” holds when it comes to mistakes, knowledge, and healthy environments. I hope you’ll come back for the last installment.