Bending reality (short version)

Do you believe in magic?

Most people don’t.

But this isn’t about magic as such – it’s about belief: in particular, Gooch’s Paradox, that “things not only have to be seen to be believed, but also have to be believed to be seen”.

What we think of as ‘reality’ is, in effect, defined by our beliefs.

To change reality, we need to change what we see as reality.

So to change anything – to bend reality – we have to change our beliefs.

Which is a lot harder than it might sound, because even the most ‘rational’ of beliefs – such as not believing in magic – are often defended by huge walls of emotion. Which no amount of ‘rational evidence’ will change, because if we don’t believe it, we won’t see the evidence as evidence. That’s the point of Gooch’s Paradox.

Since you probably won’t believe me, you’ll have to experience it for yourself.

Which is what the full-length version of this post is all about.

Practical implications for enterprise-architecture

In practice, almost all of enterprise-architecture is creating some form of supposedly-useful change.

Which, invariably, will require bending reality for most if not all of the stakeholders involved.

Including ourselves.

In this type of context, TL;DR is almost exactly what not to do.

You’re gonna have to read the ‘Implications for enterprise architecture’ section of the full version of this post to see what you do need to do.

No short-cuts for this one. None that will work, anyway.

Magic, yes, but not that kind of magic.

Sorry. 🙂