Betrayal: Unraveling Deadly Secrets
10x1
Photo by cottonbro studio
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Introduction
We meet a new anti-design pattern: 10X1.
Giganet celebrates their win with LA County using BlindLeadingTheBlind and decides to hire a salesperson to help Barry amp up sales.
Alice remembers how she once loved Robert De Niro.
Midnight run
It was Sunday morning at 10:30.
The doorbell rang. Her ex, Dave was at the door.
Alice walks over to the console table by the entrance. She puts her Smith & Wesson MP9 under the LA Times. Alice remembered the scene from “Midnight Run” where Robert De Niro hides a gun under a newspaper. Like, when Walsh is hired to bring The Duke from New York to Los Angeles, and the task turns into a journey filled with unexpected twists and turns. Alice remembers how she once loved Robert De Niro.
Alice touches his face, smelling his aftershave up close.
Dave, “Where are the kids?”
Alice, “Their grandfather took them to DisneyLand. Jerzy was feeling spontaneous. I thought we’d go out for brunch in Venice”.
Dave, “Uh, OK, if that’s what you want. I mean like it sucks I can’t take the kids today. You know - I’m a little thirsty, can I get something to drink before we head out?”
Alice, “I’ll get us something cold”.
Alice comes out of the kitchen with 2 glasses of soda water, her leather bag hanging from her shoulder.
She drops her bag on the coffee table with a thunk.
Dave, “What do you have there?”
Alice, “A couple of pounds of metal”.
They sit down on the sofa and sip soda.
Alice, “So Dave, how is the derivatives trading business?”
Dave, “Working long hours. Making good money”.
Alice, “So how was it in Ventura?”
Dave, “Ventura?”
Alice, “Yeah, Ventura, outside UNIFY FCU on Victoria Ave. Are you still seeing Ana Garcia?”
Dave, “How do you know that?”
Alice, “You’ve been under surveillance by the FBI for the past 2 weeks. They recorded you and Ms. Garcia exchanging envelopes”.
Dave pulls the Sig Sauer P229 out of Alice’s bag and turns to the door. “Alice - don’t make this hard. Give me a 5’ head start and I’ll be out of your life”.
Alice, “I don’t think you understand. I’m placing you under arrest on suspicion of wire fraud and money-laundering”.
Dave points the Sig at Alice, opens the door and walks to his white Tesla. “Don’t follow me. If I have to shoot, I’ll shoot you”.
Alice picks up the Smith & Wesson MP9 from under the LA Times, and walks towards the car.
“Dave, You are under arrest on suspicion of wire fraud and money-laundering”.
Dave is reaching to close the car door when Alice shoots him in the fleshy part of his thigh, exactly where she intended, without making it deadly.
Dave cries out in pain. “You know, it didn’t have to end like this. We could have figured something out, we had great years together”.
Alice, “No, I don’t know, but for what it's worth - you were a decent Dad”.
Venice
The team is at the Venice studio apartment celebrating their win with LA County. Iris, Barry, Bob, Lena, Justin, Yasmin and Pesya are all holding shots of McCallan 16.
Bob’s 6 year old, Emma, is hanging out with the Giganet team today. She didn’t feel like going to school this morning, so she came to work with Bob. Emma has a shot of orange juice, almost like the adults.
The team is waiting for Iris to say something.
Iris - “Here’s to Madame Eichbaum for sheer brilliance!”
Pesya, their jolly hacker matriarch, laughed. “To this amazing team for getting us here, to Bob for thinking out of the box. I nominate Todd Jameson at ISD in LA County for Best Supporting Actor in BlindLeadingTheBlind!”
Bob is looking at their team, taking it all in and feeling good.
Barry - Italian gangster look, polo shirt, slacks, tasseled loafers.
Iris - sharp features, sleeveless blouse, designer-ripped jeans, black stilettos.
Lena - Going for a more edgy version of G.I. Jane and succeeding.
Justin - age 20, Korean, jet-black hair. He rocks a loose-fitting graphic t-shirt paired with low-slung, baggy cargo pants. High-top sneakers complete the look.
Yasmin - a slim, tall, very beautiful woman. Wearing a white t-shirt and straight-leg jeans outfit from L’Agence on Rodeo. Mizuno women’s running shoes. Fluid movement like a professional athlete. Long, manicured purple nails. Not your image of a kernel driver software developer.
Barry shakes Bob out of his reflective moment. “Guys, let’s get back to work, we have a candidate in 15’”.
Barry wants to leverage momentum from the LA County deal and amp up sales to other cities in California.
Josh has 16 years of experience in enterprise software sales management at Oracle. He responded to an ad that Giganet placed on LinkedIn for an experienced Account Executive position.
Josh is dressed for an enterprise sales position. He’s wearing a tailored, two-piece gray suit, crisp, button-up dress shirt, and a silk tie.
They are doing an in-office interview-loop.
After Barry and Iris, Josh is interviewed by Bob. Bob is unsure about Josh.
Bob, “Josh, can you give us a few more minutes?”
Josh, “Sure, I’m really excited about the opportunity, I’ll hang out”.
Bob huddles with Iris and Barry in the kitchen. “His answers are a bit too vanilla. Josh seems like a good salesman but I’m not sure he’s the right fit”.
Barry, “What do you propose?”
Bob, “Let’s ask Josh to pitch Giganet to Emma”.
Iris, “Seriously?”
Bob, “Seriously”.
Barry, “I don’t mind. Emma is sharp. Like her Mom and Dad. If Emma buys, he can sell to anybody”.
Bob calls Emma over and introduces her to Josh. “Josh, we’ve spent a couple of hours together. You have a good idea of the Giganet value proposition. I’d like you to pitch Giganet to Emma”.
Josh sits across from Emma at the kitchen table and pitches to Emma on why Giganet is the perfect solution for her company. He explains to Emma about API services and open source libraries for integrating different kinds of watches and workflows for integrating with payroll systems.
Emma listens carefully to Josh.
Emma, “Josh, I don’t understand how this helps me pay people. My Mom just pays my babysitter with her phone”.
Josh spends some more time explaining about API services and integration hubs.
Emma is getting bored. “Daddy, can I hang out with the engineers? They’re more fun than this”.
Barry, “Josh - thanks for coming in. We’ll be in touch”.
The 10X1 Anti-Pattern
Anti-pattern
You have 10 years of experience; 1 year repeated 10 times.
This anti-pattern is created when you do not learn.
Why does this happen?
We can understand this anti-pattern in terms of the 2 main processes of brain plasticity.
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP): A long-lasting enhancement in signal transmission between two neurons that results from stimulating them synchronously. LTP is one of the major cellular mechanisms for learning and memory.
Long-Term Depression (LTD): A long-lasting decrease in synaptic strength. It plays a role in pruning unnecessary synaptic connections and in memory and learning, as a counterpart to LTP.
When you face new challenges, learn new skills, and adapt to new situations, LTP strengthens synaptic connections in the brain. Each new experience or learned skill builds upon previous ones, leading to a robust and complex network of neural pathways. Conversely, LTD prunes away the misses and mistakes that a person makes.
When you shy from new challenges, new learning, and new situations, you get repetition without growth.
Solution
Thinking is the hardest work many people have to do.
You don’t like to do any more of it than you can help. You look for shortcuts. You don’t collect the data and analyze it before finding the simplest solution.
Think. Learn. Analyze. Find the obvious solution - the solution that everyone says - “Why didn’t I think of that?”
On a park bench in Venice CA
Mark was the one who began.
Mark, “Bob, tell me what’s happening at Giganet, and what’s new with Alice?”.
Mark remained silent as they sat on the park bench.
In front of them there was the green calm of the park.
A man hungry for an answer, must stock up on patience.
A man in possession of analytical skills needs to listen.
That is why Mark remained silent.
Mark listened carefully to Bob's story for about 15 minutes.
Bob, “I didn’t see Alice this week. I think she’s busy with something at work”.
Mark, “Hmm. Use the SelfCare pattern with Alice. Ask questions and be a good listener. Don’t push.
I liked how you used the 10X1 pattern to see if the candidate could find the obvious way of presenting Giganet. Finding the obvious solution to a problem is always a good test.”