On Caterpillars, Butterflies and Getting Your Names Right.
With the first flap of its wings the butterfly begins its journey through life and the caterpillar is no more.
Although the names caterpillar and butterfly refer to phenomena related to the same biological flow, they are not the same animal. They refer to animals that move, interact, eat and perceive the world in different ways. At microscopic level caterpillar and butterfly are made out of an almost identical chemical mixture. The compounds, molecules and atoms making both caterpillar and butterfly have the same name because they are in essence the same thing.
Even when entities at a higher level of complexity disintegrate and get combined again in new forms of order, the building blocks that formed such entities retain their unity and definition.
In order to be able to understand the metamorphosis of the caterpillar and its marvellous re-definition into the butterfly it is crucial to identify the entities at play according to their own level of complexity and mutual relationship. Failing to understand which parts of the caterpillar remain intact and which parts are dissolved in the evolution into butterfly would be equal to failing to grasp the workings of the change.
The power of a name is often overlooked. As meaning seeking animals we are so accustomed to label things around us that we seldom reflect on the significance of definition. Yet names cast a boundary around entities, they mark the perimeter of what belongs and what doesn’t. Names depend upon definitions, that draw data in from even more names and more definitions in a twirling nebula of mutual relationships. Get your names mixed up and your sentence won’t make sense. Get your chemicals mixed up and your reaction won’t work. Get your parts mixed up and your engine will fail.
Not only we need to get our names right to understand natural processes, like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly, but also we depend on the accuracy of naming for the efficacy of our creative and manufacturing efforts. If a worker on the production line of the latest VW ID3 gets her names wrong and tries to attach the wrong bolt in the wrong part of the car’s body the production will stop, we trust, until the mismatched relationship is resolved (anyway the production line of the ID3 is almost entirely automated so the syntax error might happen at script level, not so much in picking).
Focusing on digital production, and thinking about algorithms and code as light-speed fast production lines, the importance of naming entities correctly becomes even more apparent. Anyone, with even the most basic experience of coding or spreadsheet practice, knows that defining the variables is the single most important step in order to set up a working routine. Get your spelling wrong and the script will fail.
At Marcel Mauer our aim is to use design to protect life on Earth and to regenerate bio-supporting systems affected by degenerative human practices. In order to maximise the impact of our work, given the time pressure of global heating and the sixth mass extinction, we cannot afford to be imprecise, to get our names mixed up, to run our scripts on and on with endless error messages.
Understand what your metaphorical caterpillar is and clarify to yourself and to your team what the butterfly should comprise of. Define tasks clearly, break them down into easily recognisable parts. When a building block shows a pattern of reoccurrence, like the atoms, molecules and compounds in the caterpillar physiology, don’t re-invent the wheel. Draw from a library of standard building blocks and focus your creative thinking time towards the definition of entities of higher complexity.
We recently introduced Monday.com in all our processes specifically for the app’s intuitive application of automation routines. We see automation as an enabler of creativity. By automating repeated and routinary tasks we can concentrate on the human all too human magic of creativity. There’s no automation without correct indexing, naming and labelling of the entities and processes.
If you work at Marcel Mauer is because you share our vision of design as a tool to create a better future. To transform the ageing caterpillar of fossil fuels culture into the butterfly of a regenerative future.
Therefore use your design wisely.
And get your names right.
Good Day,
Marcel Mauer
