Why You Should Always Question Your Own Work
I was waiting in line to get a coffee from a nearby coffee shop to the office when someone tapped me on the shoulder. He looked a little dazed but it was 7am and maybe he just wasn't a morning person. It was John, a friend and a colleague from the office. I haven't seen him around the office in a few weeks, so after we both got our coffees, we sat down at a table for a chat.
As we chatted, John mentioned he'd been staying late at the office, manually entering data into SpaceGass, an engineering analysis program. That's when I noticed his eyebags and slump, he wasn't just tired, he was exhausted from working so late. I was sympathetic but he told reassured me that it was the only way to get SpaceGass to work the way he wanted to.As he explained more, I realized that it was something I could help with. Coincidentally, I had just finished another project with a different structural team that was also using SpaceGass. So, I kept prodding for more information as I tried to convince him that I could help him out.
But, John's a sceptic, even though we are friends, he has never reached out to me for any computational help. I think he was too tired to argue further, he gave up his stance and told me he would give me a call the next day.
The next day, we hopped on a call and I made a script that reduced his eight-hour process to just two hours. It wasn't a perfect script, there was still some manual cleaning of the data to do but it made a significant difference.
The Hidden Cost of "That's Just How We Do It"
We all have our "manual data entry" moments. Maybe it's the weekly report you painstakingly compile from different spreadsheets. Or the client emails you copy-paste from one system to another. It's easy to stay in our default mode even if it means working late and long hours. Sometimes we accept these tasks as unchangeable parts of our routine, rarely stopping to question if there's an alternative.
What struck me most about my conversation with John was how close he came to never mentioning his problem at all. If we hadn't bumped into each other that morning, he might still be staying late at the office, manually entering data, accepting it as just "part of the job." This is a pattern I've seen repeatedly in our industry - brilliant professionals spending countless hours on tasks that could be automated or streamlined, simply because they don't realize there might be a better way.
It isn't John's fault for not reaching out about his problem. Computational design is new and abstract and it's hard to understand how exactly it can help. It's actually the responsibility of us, the computational designers to help offer and show that there are better ways of doing things.
A Quick Pause
It's hard to explore new ways of working when you're deep in the trenches of deadlines but when you do have the mental capacity it's good to pause and do an audit of what you've been working on. The audit is to curiously question your processes to see if there are better ways of doing things. Here's how to make these pauses more natural:
Notice the time sucks: Pay attention to tasks that leave you feeling drained or frustrated. These negative emotions are often signals pointing to processes that need questioning.
Ask "What If?": When you catch yourself saying "that's just how we do it," treat it as a trigger to ask, "What if there was a better way?"
Share the Struggle: Like John in the coffee shop, sometimes just voicing your challenges to someone else can lead to unexpected solutions.
I know it's advice that you have most likely heard before but it's a good reminder that there might be better ways of doing things.
Sharing Solutions
If you're a computational designer then I think it helps to share examples of work that you've done to help inspire people. It also helps everyone understand how exactly can computational design benefit a project.
That's particularly why I started posting on LinkedIn more, is because by continuously sharing the possibilities of computational design, I hope that someone might get inspired enough to think of a solution to their own problems. It's about creating a ripple effect - each shared solution potentially sparking dozens of "what if" moments for others in similar situations.
The impact goes beyond just saving time. When we automate repetitive tasks, we free up mental energy for more creative and strategic work. In John's case, those six hours saved weren't just about leaving the office earlier - they represented an opportunity to focus on the more challenging and rewarding aspects of his job.
Breaking the Cycle
We often get so caught up in the day-to-day execution of our tasks that we lose sight of the bigger picture. We become experts at working harder, when we could be focusing on working smarter.
This cycle is particularly prevalent in technical fields, where professionals pride themselves on their ability to tackle complex challenges. Ironically, this same dedication can sometimes blind us to simpler solutions. We might spend hours perfecting a manual process when a automated solution could do the same job in minutes.
Final Thoughts
Sometimes, like in John's case, that single pause can lead to hours of saved time. Sometimes, you'll confirm that your current process is indeed the best way and all you wasted was a conversation. It feels like pausing just for a moment to see if there's a better way is a low risk high reward situation.
The next time you find yourself staying late at the office, completing a tedious task, or feeling frustrated with an inefficient process, there just might be a better way. Computational design may not always be the answer but it never hurts to try.