Tim Barcz

Royal Bank of Scotland Commercials

I saw some commercials recently that I wanted to blog about.  I've been meaning to write for some time, but I've been looking for the commercials anywhere on the internet so I could provide a link.  I've been unable to find them so I'm just going to have to tell you about them.  Both commercials are by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

Commercial #1: In this commercial there is a wedding ceremony.  When the minister as her, "do you take this man?" she responds, "I do."  When the same question is asked of the man he responds with anything but, "I do."  He goes on about how both sides may not have been equally represented, yada yada yada.  As he's going on, and on, and on, with good management speak, his best man speaks up and says, "I do."

Commerical #2: In this commercial there is a group out on a hike.  On of the hikers steps into some quicksand.  The tour guide notices and says something like, "What the first rule in hiking?"  To which everyone responds, "don't panic."  "Is anyone panicking?" he asks.  After that he (mind you the hiker caught in the quicksand is still sinking) goes on about how he thinks they should form a steering committee and do a risk analysis.  While he's going on and on, a third hiker, throws a rope to the sinking hiker and pulls him out.

The message in both is, less talk, more action.  I think about that in regards to software.  Sometimes, to cover our own lack of undrestanding, we hide behind process.  In our current project we've been working on for a few months, there are times we all feel like we're just talking and we have to put ourselves back on track to build software.  In other words, to get things done.  Joel Spolsky repeated says that the best programmers are the ones who are "Smart, and Get Things Done" and 37signals wrote a whole book dedicated to the idea of "Getting Real" and less talk and more action.

I'm having a bit of the "talking syndrome" lately.  I don't want to be that way, but am gravitating that way as I'm dealing with some really tough problems at work.  Rather than just bust out some code and try things, I allow myself to get caught up in talking about.  While sometimes talking and thinking about things first can be productive, there is a point, just like the two commercials above, where words are just dressing. 

Do you struggle sometimes with "talking to much" in effort to delay work?  Comment on it, tell me about it.

After the post, I'm going to shut down the email and chat windows.  I'm going to close the door to my office.  Throw on the Braveheart Soundtrack and try to bust through this one.