It was my first internship as a software developer. Hitherto I did not have any experience of how tech industry works. Over the months I observed how things work in a company. I discovered the concept of the "abstraction sphere" and its implications for both employers and employees. Broadly, people working in a company can be of two types:
1. Ordinary minds: Comes at 9 AM, does the work assigned to them, leave at 5 PM. They are usually indifferent to what is happening around them, how things “not assigned” to them work. You will find many people like this. These people like to work in abstraction, and only do what they are asked to do.
2. Curious minds: These people are seldom found as employees in a company, but if they have to work as employees, they keep their eyes and ears open to what is happening in the company. They like to dig deep into things.
Employers usually like the former kind of employees, who want to work in the abstraction sphere created for them. That’s why information in a company is distributed. They believe in the phrase said by Dumbledore in Fantastic beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore, “No one can know everything”. Employers fear curious minds because those employees can create competition for them, by starting a competing company but equipped with better information about what works and what doesn’t. History validates this, several companies were started by previous employees withing the same industry.
But it’s not easy for the curious mind to dig deep into things as employees work in a abstraction sphere, no one knows everything. So the person has to talk to a lot of employees gathering pieces of information and join them together to see the bigger picture.
Abstraction sphere is a win-win situation for the employers, as it ensures two things.
1. Employees do the work assigned to them without getting distracted.
2. Limiting the probability of getting a competitive company by their employee.
So, If you are working, always be curious, information never goes to waste.