I knew I needed to listen, but my brain couldn’t help itself.
A client was walking me through his process and it was genuinely impressive. Organised, logical, shared across the team, nobody making mistakes - a lot of the things that are often missing weren’t.
But there were just so many steps. Copy this here, save that there, move this across so the next person can pick it up. And the whole time he’s talking, my brain is mentally rebuilding it. I couldn’t help it.
I think that’s the curse of being the outside person. You can’t switch it off.
Someone is walking you through something they’ve built and are proud of, and you’re already three steps ahead, redesigning it in your head. It’s almost rude.
But that’s also the whole point of bringing someone in. And why so many cliches exist here - fresh eyes, inside the jar, wood for the trees, a fish doesn’t know it’s wet. True stuff has tonnes of cliches.
My thing is systems. Your thing is likely something else.
Does your brain not let you not think?