No Rambos

The concept of a “one-man army” is complete fiction… at least if you are trying to run a tech business that scales.

Sure, there are some solo devs out there and good for them, but if you are running a dev shop with 50 engineers, then someone that acts like a one-man army is more of a liability.

There is a saying I am quite fond of:

“If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”

It was true back when humans were first establishing tribes and exploring the world, and it's true now when running a business in tech.

Admittedly, there might be a time to go fast, like exploring a proof of concept for a new tech you might want to integrate with your stack.

But once the PoC is over and your team greenlights the integration, you need to start cross-training and making sure there isn’t a knowledge silo around it.

When I was recently entertaining this big project I am now on, I told them, “I am not Rambo.” I will need the support and engagement of the team around me to accomplish our goals.

Their team needs to be able to learn how to use the systems I am building and be able to build off of those systems in order for us to maximize the RoI to the organization.

If you ever come across a “one-man army” in this business, I would be skeptical.