Light. Thought. Action?

There is this hurried topic which makes me anxious. In a fast-paced world, we are challenged to think and act quickly. A thought of action is oftentimes preferred rather than a thought of reflection. However, action requires expertise and information. The information is key and unlocks a world of wonder, multiple choices and paths. Expertise is a skill acquired through practice. By its turn, the practice requires time, the most valuable resource: it is not renewable, not transferable, not replaceable, not exchangeable nor refundable. Effective action over time depends on making achievable decisions.

Before this text becomes ethereal, I talk about choices: performing a computational task has become dauntingly fast with the application of efficient algorithms in purposeful situations. The great technology companies are in a hurry to deliver the best services. On this track, they deliver value through quality products. To build products, especially digital ones, companies need to make choices.

In a tangible description, we cite programming languages, frameworks, libraries, interfaces, views, databases, cloud provider(s), services, and IDEs. For management, we cite methodology, process, teams, and leaders. For marketing and product design: customer profile, target market, legislation, regulation, standards, protocols. For management: strategy, mission and principles, rules and habits. For human relations: culture, behaviour, interactions.

For a systematic brain, the aforementioned combination of factors becomes a complex system, challenging to understand and manage. For those who study mathematics, this conjunction is the so-called NP problem: given a universe of multiple non-polynomial choices for the desired scenario, find a suboptimal choice in a reasonable time. The way to provide a solution is to use a heuristics. They are rules of thumb that guide the decision-making process. Technology comes in handy to mitigate some of the complexity. It introduces, however, another layer of complexity for those who handle it.