The Software Developer's Career Handbook

Chapter 14. The Impossible

Right now, there’s a CEO standing in front of his 85-person startup at an all-hands meeting and he’s saying, “In the next ninety days, we need to do the impossible.”

The particular version of impossible doesn’t matter. What matters is that everyone in the room is shocked when he says it. You can tell by the intensity of the silence.

“We’re going to what in the what?”

What gives this guy the right to ask the impossible? Sure, he’s the CEO, but does that mean he gets to stand in front of the room and ask the team to build a levitation machine?

Yeah, it does.

However, this does not mean the CEO isn’t screwing up.

Asking for the impossible is an advanced management technique, and it’s one that is particularly abhorrent to engineers. Engineers are very clear on what is and isn’t possible because they’re responsible for building and measuring all the possible. When you ask an engineer to do the impossible, they often laugh in your face, not only because they think it’s an absurd, irrational request, but they also have the data to prove it.

Yet, given this irrefutable data, we are still going to consider this request. There is an upside to pulling off the impossible. Not only is it a great morale booster, but it can also be incredibly profitable, because all your competition thinks the impossible is, well, impossible. Better yet, Who doesn’t want a flux capacitor?

There are three measurements to take with regard to your CEO and his request when the team has ...