Epics
April 23rd, 2010[ Software Development ]
I spent a night recently watching rock climbing videos including this one from 2005. It’s the first female free ascent of the west face (V 5.13b/c A0), leaning tower at Yosemite.
“Yosemite is a place where you have to have had a certain number of experiences and epics before you really understand what you’re getting into”
It reminded me of a previous life spent climbing up rocks and mountains. Within the rock climbing community there is always a lot of talk of epics. It’s ingrained in the culture. “My last climbing trip went well but we had an epic on that last day I need to tell you about someday”.
The picture above is a route named The Cyclops located in Joshua Tree California. I’ve climbed here a few times and the last time I was by myself. When you’re climbing alone, you make friends quickly so you can climb with someone. I immediately met a group of three that welcomed me to climb with them. That first evening they asked if I wanted to tag along and solo up cyclops to watch the sunset. The short story is that one of our group had no business solo’ing any climb harder than a ladder. This particular epic included me downclimbing the route and then a night time rescue to get the ladder climber off the face safely. I’ll only add that I did manage to save the two Heinekens in my pockets.
My point is this, within climbing, epics are explicit. They’re part of the language, they’re earned and there is esteem that grows around them. No one hides from them or pretends that there’s anyway to get around experiencing them in order to get better. In the video above Lynn doesn’t talk about Katie needing to read more books or talk with more experienced climbers. It’s just a fact that she needs more epics under her belt before she’ll be a better climber.
To me, this is what David is speaking about here, and Mike Lee here. Lamenting the lack of talent or the fact that we don’t have people with enough epics under their belts is a start. How do we actively find out a solution to this? How do we grow the leadership skills a startup community needs? Applying funding where there’s a lack of epics does nothing. I agree with David and can speak from experience that working in services companies like BandOfCoders is fundamentally different and will not prepare you for a startup.
If you’re someone who can, how are you facilitating the next generation to have their own epics? If you’re on the other side, are you seeking out epics of your own? I agree, let’s stop talking about failure but I can’t agree that learning from failure is overrated. Every epic I’ve experienced included some form of failure. Seek out your epic experiences and encourage and provide opportunities to those willing to have their own.