Knowledge work has to be done for the right reason to be done well.
If I choose to implement a feature because I’ll get some reward for it, like a gold star on my next review, then I will implement it far enough to check the box. I won’t get it smooth, or optimal. I will optimize the wrong parts or not at all.
If I implement that feature because I believe it’s the next thing I can do to improve our customer’s experience, then I’ll get optimize for that experience. I’ll make all the tiny decisions with that in mind. I’ll check whether I’ve slowed the site down, or interfered with other features, or cluttered the interface.
Creation is a process, not a transaction.
We are guided throughout that process by an intention. If that intention is to check a box, we’ll check the box, and leave the rest of the system to fall as it will.
In Dynamics in Action, Alicia Juarrero models human action as a process: we start with an intention, which shapes the probability space of what we do next. We do something, and then we check the results against our intention, and then we respond to difference.
Action is a process, not an atomic motion.
Development is action, and it is knowledge work not hand work. To do it well, to shape the system we work in and work on, we line our intentions up with the goals of the system. Not with some external reward or punishment. Intention shapes action, over time, in response to feedback. Reasons matter.