No.0142：A Farewell to Stalemate
Septembar 29,2025
When you try to do everything at once, you can get so tied up that you can’t move at all. And yet, sometimes a small trigger lets a ray of light break through the clouds, and before you know it, the sky has completely cleared.
 
The Chaos of System Development
Take system development ー my own profession ー as an example. To build a new system within budget, you first have to define the scope. Each department, and every person from rookie to veteran within them, has different things they want the system to do. Trying to accommodate everyone’s wishes is nearly impossible. Add to that the power struggles between departments, internal competition for promotion within the department, and the turf wars over who owns what role ー human emotions laid bare, each trying to pull the advantage toward themselves ー and before long, things can descend into chaos.
 
At times like this, I go back to the original purpose: What are we actually trying to achieve by building this system? I question whether the request is truly necessary. “If the goal is to increase new customer acquisition by 20%, does spending 30% of the development budget on payroll automation really make sense?” I’ll say something like that. Even then, it doesn’t always settle easily. Someone will argue ー not unreasonably ー that faster, more accurate payroll processing boosts employee motivation, which leads to better customer service. And so on.When all else fails, the final weapon is CEO approval. I’ve seen it happen more than once: a relatively powerful stakeholder (say, a division head) falls silent the moment the CEO, the ultimate authority, delivers a single decisive word.
 
The “crane’s cry” really does exist — and at times, it can have a surprisingly powerful effect.
 
From Local Optimization to Global Optimization
Here’s another story from system development. If you try to automate everything, development volume balloons and costs go through the roof. Sometimes, though, there’s a “magic spot” ー a small slice of the process where leaving just a little bit of manual work makes the overall system much simpler. It’s like finding a pressure point in the palm of your hand that eases your back pain with just a nudge. An SE is often judged by how skillfully they can guide a situation so that sacrificing a part ultimately benefits the whole.

Letting the flesh be cut to sever the bone.
 
Soft Yet Strong, Like Water
This ties into courage and resolve. When you’re too focused on protecting everything, fear can keep you from moving forward. But if you accept that losing something is tolerable ー if you prepare for the worst ー you feel lighter, freer to act boldly. Sometimes I meet people in business negotiations who are obsessed with power dynamics, trying to exploit any weakness they find ー the kind of nasty approach that seems to revel in others’ misfortune, like the scheming dog character from the old cartoon Hakushon Daimaō.
 
Yes, money is involved, so you put up with a little ー but if I decide the relationship is too toxic, I’m willing to walk away, even if it means a short-term loss in revenue. If you become too fixated on maintaining sales at all costs, your worries grow so much that you can hardly start new deals. moreover there are things you only discover by trying. So I start ー and if it doesn’t work, I stop. That’s my current answer, and I believe it’s the way to maximize my long-term gains.
 
“There is nothing in the world softer and weaker than water.Yet nothing surpasses it in overcoming the hard and strong.”ー Lao Tzu
 
Why not move without fearing a stalemate?
Flow supplely, like water!