Frameworks

A framework is a made up system that help us navigate complex ideas.

For example, as humans, there are things that we value, and things that we don’t. You could say we have a sort of ‘value filter’ that we use to interpret people, places and things. An unconcious way of assessing what we like and what we don’t.

The ‘value filter’ isn’t real. But it sure helps us make sense of the world.

Kanban (Agile’s cousin) is a similar framework that you can use to improve your efficiency.

Kanban, of course, isn’t a real system. But by acknowleding it, by using it, it can help you get things done faster.

And language? Grammar and syntax and semantics are only ‘real’ because we agree they are. That these combinations of sounds, spoken or written in a specific way, help us communicate with each other.

Language isn’t an axiomatic truth. It’s not real. But it does help get your point across. (Another way to say that you can probably bend the rules, at least a little).

The point isn’t to regard a framework as an inflexible tool. On the contrary.

It’s to acknowledge that frameworks are a fiction (a story) that we use to help us see things more clearly.