Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

An old political phrase can be applied to just about any endeavor as a test of how awful bad something is.

Once again, we are in the time every four years in America when we have the seemingly endless campaign for President of the United States.

This year, more than in the past few elections, I read famous people saying things like, “I don’t care who OUR CANDIDATE is, we will do everything we can to defeat THEIR CANDIDATE.”

This hearkens to the phrase of “yellow dog democrat.” That phrase came out of the south after the post-civil war era of reconstruction in which a southerner would vote for an old yellow dog instead of voting for a Republican.

Times change. Parties change. Phrases change, and so on. Still, it seems to me that we are in an era where people vehemently detest THEIR CANDIDATE and will vote for anyone or anything that is OUR CANDIDATE.

Enough political analogies. Let’s talk systems, designs, ideas, concepts and the like. “I’d rather write specs on a bathroom wall than use your design.” I haven’t heard this exact phrase, but I have seen and heard people mean this in however they said it. “I hate your idea so much, I would rather tie a note to an old yellow dog’s neck and have it delivered that way.”

Okay. Tough situation. Stop. Breathe. Let’s talk. Let’s talk candidly. Let’s try to avoid venom in our talk, but let’s talk.

“Tell me openly. Do you hate my idea? Okay, keep talking to me. Tell about your dislike. What are you feeling? What brings about the hatred? What are you thinking? What are you fearing?”

The questions are endless, but are necessary. Talk. Bring hidden ideas to the surface. Why is it that my idea is so abominable to you that anything else is preferred? Teach me.

Let’s do better. We don’t need to build old yellow dog systems.