Pai Chart
One of my first managers is the inspiration for this post. Let us call him Pai.
This was soon after college. I had been taken into that team because I had worked on compiler design as part of my college final year project (C-- was the language, yes C minus minus, which had an instruction set lesser than C, haha). The project was on building a Javascript interpreter. I was super excited.
One week into the job, all I had done was do some manual testing for senior developers in the team. They would give me the complete set-up, give an excel sheet with test-cases and ask me to execute those. Basically, they were dump their unit-testing work to me.
Obviously, I felt insulted. I was taken in for my expertise in compilers/interpreters and stuff but here they were treating me like sh*t. I went to the manager (Pai) and told him I wanted to speak. He asked me to set up a 1:1 meeting. I took the help of a senior to set-up a meeting using Outlook Express (yes, I am that old), book a room etc. His calendar was so blocked that I found time only after 5 more days.
Now to the meeting itself: He heard me fully. The complete rant of 15 minutes about how I was such a great potential and how it is being wasted there. He slowly got up, drew a chart on the board:
I was amazed. I thought he was going to explain something profound with this and felt a bit sheepish for having ranted. Nonetheless, if the rant gives me some grand learning, it was worth it.
He then started speaking:
Karthik, you are new to work. Your enthusiasm will naturally be high and I fully understand that. Do not worry. Over time, it will automatically reduce and you will get OK. Talk to you in 6 months.
And then completed the chart:
Then he walked out of the room.
As you would guess, I was out of that team in another week. But then, the lesson stuck. Whenever I feel so enthusiastic about something, I think if it would pass the Pai Chart test. Same with people, when someone is so passionate about something, I wonder if they will pass the Pai Chart test. And usually, at the end of 6 months, it is gone and there is a new passion.
So, always, “Talk to you in 6 months”.
