Pre-condition
I was already frustrated with my system. I had been getting bottlenecked by the structure of my website, particularly the custom taxonomies, and was trying to work out what wasn’t working.
Event
While talking through my project with a friend, my troubles became the suggestion that perhaps I needed “no system.â€
State
Excuse me? Yuck. A mad yuck. It was an immediate, visceral rejection rather than simply disagreement. My attention quickly shifted away from the particular problem I was trying to solve and towards defending why I needed a system at all. Years of scraps of paper, databases, physically moving ideas around rooms, Word files and experiments suddenly felt relevant. All of my experiences that had led to this.
Trigger point
It wasn’t the suggestion that my current system needed to change that got me. I already knew that. It was the suggestion of removing the system altogether. That it wasn’t considered a worthwhile cause.
Perception Database
The system hadn’t appeared fully formed; I’d been iterating towards it for years. So “no system†seemed to land more like all of that experimenting wasn’t necessary or the thing you’ve spent years learning how to build is actually the problem. Perhaps most importantly, my friend couldn’t see what I was talking about. I realised I really did need to make it visible outside my own head and the notes that were scattered across various digital and physical means.
Filtering
Once activated, I became very good at finding evidence for why I needed the system and was ridiculously defensive. After a moment I realised though, my friend only wants the best for me.
Pattern / Overshoot
The challenge made me reinforce the system harder. I started pulling together ideas that had been scattered across years, making the underlying structure tangible and eventually solving the taxonomy bottleneck that had started the conversation. The response was productive, but its intensity is interesting: I didn’t just defend the system, I’ve started defining it into existence.
What did the strength of my response make visible?
I don’t think I’m questioning whether I need a system anymore. I’m questioning what form the system needs to take. How I can best represent the various aspects. I won’t get this right, there is no chance. But my friend had a point. I have to do something.