There is one system
only you understand.
You wrote it,
or you inherited it
and did the archaeology,
and now every question about it
arrives at your name.
That feels like security.
It is the opposite.
Think about what happens
when you are the answer.
You are not on the new project,
because who would cover the old one.
You are not on the rota
people want to be on,
because that rota is for those
who can be spared.
You are not promoted,
because promoting you
opens a hole
nobody wants to own.
You are safe
the way a load bearing wall is safe.
Nothing bad happens to it.
Nothing happens to it at all.
Holidays go strange.
You take the laptop.
You check the channel from somewhere
you paid to be,
and tell yourself
it is only five minutes.
The five minutes is not the cost.
The cost is that you never fully leave,
and a mind that never leaves
stops producing anything new.
The part people rarely admit
is that some of this is a choice.
Writing the runbook is dull work
with no applause in it.
Being asked is pleasant.
Being needed is pleasant.
There is a small warmth
in being the only one who knows,
and that warmth is exactly
what keeps the knowledge
where it is.
So do the unglamorous thing.
Write the runbook.
Pair with someone for a fortnight
and let them drive
while you sit on your hands.
Answer the next question with a link
instead of an explanation,
and when the link does not exist,
write it first and then send it.
You will feel your importance
drop a little.
What actually drops
is your obligation.
The people I have watched
move fastest
were never the ones
guarding a system.
They were the ones
who kept handing systems away,
and were therefore always free
for the next thing.
Value is what you can build.
It is not
what you can withhold.
– Serguey Asael Shinder
