Here’s a lovely graphic from the folks at Intercom. It describes the difference between what companies sell and what people buy.
We don’t want the tool, we want what we can do with the tool. Take it further – maybe what that skateboarder really wants is: the high fives at the end.
Our accomplishments feel real when people around us appreciate them. If the skateboarder’s peers react with “Why would you do that?? You could die! You look like a dumbass,” titanium hardware doesn’t shine so bright.
It reminds me of the DevOps community. Back when coworkers said, “Why are you writing scripts for that? Do you want to put us out of a job?” automation wasn’t so cool. Now there’s a group of peers, at least online, ready to give you high fives for that. The people you meet at conferences, or get familiar with on podcasts, or collaborate on open source tools with — these take automation from laziness into accomplishment.
Giving developers polyurethane wheels and hollow trucks won’t let them do tricks. Move to a culture of “our job is to automate ourselves out of better and better jobs.” Give us the high fives (and let us pick our tools), and developers will invent new tricks.