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What could a software architect learn from a gardener?

One of my arguably time-wasting habits has been to run searches in Google Image. I would pick words and check them to get fresh ideas and perspectives. The immediacy and diversity of results, as well as the quality of what comes out, are very addictive to me – some people are really amazing at conveying messages visually.

This is not only a great source of inspiration, but also a way to get the “big picture” and the “lay of the land”. Browsing the results, you can get a sense for what people think, which people, messages and illustrations you relate to. It gives you a roadmap for further exploration, different from the mainstream; and an immediate basis for production, if you have a presentation to deliver or a meeting to facilitate.

Google is not perfect, but this produces two wonderful side effects: it tends to highlight the “new and talked about”, and still provides wacky results now and then. The emphasis on the fad is a great benefit. It permits to observe the bleeding edge, things you might otherwise miss in the mainstream media, simply because it is not quite ready for prime time, or has not been formalized enough to be published in a book yet.

The wacky results are important too. If you are a parallel thinker, you know what is to gain from looking at the fringes, or even way beyond the limits of your domain. Cross-disciplinary interaction has historically brought a lot of innovation. In science, technology, or philosophy for that matter, the main breakthroughs often occurred when two trains of thoughts collided.

Google image search is a great way to explore and navigate beyond the boundaries of a domain, and it produce some niceties. For instance, I recently looked for what was new on “project management cycle”, and Google came up with this:

As you probably did, I reflected: “Hmm… cute way of re-hashing the PDCA, or maybe the Agile concentric loops…” until I saw the word “permaculture”, that is. Then looking around the drawing, I realized that I was on a gardening expert web site. So I asked myself: What can I learn from a gardener? Is there a natural rhythm that we adopted without recognizing it?” (As a side-note, you can check this graph’s author’s website here)

There are many ways to do this, and Google Search is only one of them:

• Type words you know in Google image search and see what can astonish you

• Change search engine, from time to time

• Go to a library, into an isle you previously ignored and see what you can learn

• Go to a bookshop (this is different), meander, meet someone, ask them what they know and like

So let me ask you:

• What does this mean for you? How will you benefit from the wonders others create, in domains unknown to you? How can these people you do not know yet open your eyes to new possibilities?

• If knowledge is your trade, will you spend some time “looking around”? What domains are good candidates? Which ones are outrageous? Go there…

• If you are an artist, should you include some active “wacky search” time in your creative process?

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