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Think in Composition

Summary

The episode introduces the concept of compositional thinking, arguing that virtually every meaningful decision or situation involves multiple components rather than a single focus. The host explains that our brains naturally try to simplify complex compositions by focusing on a principal component, which can lead to poor decisions when the composition is important.

A key example is the hiring process, where it’s easy to become myopic about a candidate with exceptional technical skills while ignoring other crucial components like communication or time management. The host suggests creating a matrix of components that make up a good candidate, even with equal initial weighting, to arrive at better decisions.

The discussion extends beyond hiring to general decision-making, noting that our tendency to reduce compositions to one thing often vilifies having multiple priorities. The host argues that multiple priorities can coexist and that we should consider how they interact, not just exist side-by-side. The composition involves meaningful interaction, similar to pairing the right wine with a dish.

To cultivate compositional thinking, the host offers practical homework: when you find yourself giving a singular answer to a question, ask “why?” instead of “what?” This reveals the underlying composition you might be ignoring and helps you consider balance across components. This approach applies to everything from high-level decisions down to software development, encouraging listeners to move beyond compressed labels and singular metrics.

Recommendations

Communities

  • Developer Tea Discord — The host invites listeners to join the Developer Tea Discord community to continue discussions on philosophical topics like compositional thinking.

Tools

  • Square APIs — Mentioned as the episode’s sponsor. Square provides APIs for payments, subscriptions, employee management, order tracking, and inventory, helping developers build integrated business applications.

Topic Timeline

  • 00:00:00 — Introduction to Compositional Thinking — The host introduces the core idea that most decisions and problems involve composition rather than a singular focus. He frames the episode’s goal as helping listeners think in terms of composites. The host, Jonathan Cottrell, welcomes listeners to Developer Tea.
  • 00:01:48 — Hiring Example and the Danger of Myopia — The host uses hiring as a concrete example. He describes how it’s easy to label a candidate with strong technical skills as “the technical one,” focusing on that single component. This myopic view is an automatic cognitive shortcut that compresses information but can be dangerous, leading to poor hiring decisions by ignoring the full composition of a good candidate.
  • 00:02:52 — Creating a Decision Matrix for Better Outcomes — The host proposes a solution: create a matrix of components that make up a good candidate. Even starting with equal weighting for all components (like technical skills, time management, communication) is likely to yield a better decision than hyper-focusing on one. This method forces consideration of the entire composite picture.
  • 00:05:00 — Our Brain’s Simplifying Tendency and Multiple Priorities — After a sponsor break, the host acknowledges our brain’s useful tendency to simplify (e.g., savory vs. sweet). However, he challenges the idea that optimal strategy means reducing composition to one thing. He argues that multiple priorities can and should coexist, and we should think about how they interact meaningfully within a composition, not just list them.
  • 00:06:49 — Practical Homework: Ask ‘Why’ to Reveal Composition — The host gives actionable advice to build compositional thinking. When you give a singular answer, ask “why?” instead of “what?” This reveals the metrics or components you’ve chosen to focus on and those you’ve ignored. It doesn’t mean the choice was bad, but it surfaces the underlying composition, encouraging more balanced thinking across all relevant factors.

Episode Info

  • Podcast: Developer Tea
  • Author: Jonathan Cutrell
  • Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
  • Published: 2021-11-24T08:00:00Z
  • Duration: 00:09:31

References

Podcast Info

Transcript

[00:00:00] Virtually every decision you will make, every situation you will encounter, every problem

[00:00:11] that you solve has some element of composition.

[00:00:17] In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about how to think in terms of composite rather

[00:00:24] than in terms of some singular focus.

[00:00:27] My name is Jonathan Cottrell, you’re listening to Developer Team.

[00:00:31] My goal on this show is to help driven developers like you find clarity, perspective, and purpose

[00:00:35] in their careers.

[00:00:39] When I ask you, what do you want in your life?

[00:00:46] Or when I ask you, what do you want out of your job?

[00:00:50] Or even when I ask you, what do you want to eat for dinner?

[00:00:56] The answer to all of these questions and virtually every other question that you will have of

[00:01:04] any substance and meaning is a composite answer.

[00:01:12] Very rarely is there only one thing that we want in our lives, in our careers or for dinner.

[00:01:21] And the truth is, most of the time we try to make our decisions by optimizing for one

[00:01:29] thing in a composite whole.

[00:01:33] Often this can lead to really poor decisions, especially when that composition is important.

[00:01:42] For example, imagine you are charged with hiring someone.

[00:01:48] And as you are developing the interviewing process, you recognize a candidate who has

[00:01:56] very strong technical skills.

[00:01:59] In fact, much stronger than any other candidate.

[00:02:04] And it becomes very easy to become myopic about this particular candidate to even label

[00:02:11] them the technical one.

[00:02:15] And of course, you’re not necessarily cognitively choosing to do this.

[00:02:20] This is an accidental artifact.

[00:02:25] This is our brains trying to do us a favor, even though it’s pretty dangerous, trying

[00:02:31] to give us a simple handle, a way of compressing down information so we can remember and trying

[00:02:42] to find the principal component of that composition.

[00:02:47] But the truth is, it is probably universally better, when you’re trying to hire somebody,

[00:02:52] to create a matrix.

[00:02:55] Create a matrix of components that make up a good candidate.

[00:03:00] Now, there might be components that have more weight than others.

[00:03:07] Even if you didn’t have a clear picture of what those weights should be, even if you

[00:03:14] just started with equal weighting on all of those components, you’re going to come out

[00:03:18] with more likely a better decision.

[00:03:21] For example, that person who has very good technical skills perhaps doesn’t have very

[00:03:26] good time management skills or communication skills.

[00:03:32] We’re going to take a quick sponsor break and then we’ll come back and talk a little

[00:03:34] bit more about how we do this matrix composition, how we can start thinking that way on a more

[00:03:43] ongoing basis and in kind of an automatic response beyond when we’re creating a hiring

[00:03:50] pipeline.

[00:04:00] Developer T is supported by Square.

[00:04:03] Developers worldwide use Square’s APIs to build solutions for modern businesses.

[00:04:09] Square makes it simple to accept payments on the web, on mobile and in person, and build

[00:04:14] a steady revenue stream through subscriptions programs.

[00:04:18] Square is more than a payments platform, though.

[00:04:20] Square has APIs for almost every aspect of running a business, from employee management

[00:04:25] to order creation and tracking to inventory synchronization.

[00:04:30] Developers APIs also integrate with software business owners already use, like tax and

[00:04:35] bookings.

[00:04:36] So business owners can have an integrated software stack that empowers them to achieve

[00:04:40] their goals.

[00:04:41] To get started building remarkable business applications, visit developer.squareup.com

[00:04:51] to learn more and create an account.

[00:04:53] Thanks again to Square for their support of Developer T.

[00:05:00] It is our brain’s automatic tendency to try to simplify complicated things, and usually

[00:05:13] this works in our favor.

[00:05:16] We can think, do I want something that tastes savory or sweet?

[00:05:23] Even though the tastes go beyond, the flavors of almost every food go beyond these simple

[00:05:29] categories, it gives us a heuristic, something to follow to create an easier decision process.

[00:05:38] So if you had a whole pantry full of food, you don’t have to evaluate the entire pantry

[00:05:43] anymore.

[00:05:44] You’ve essentially cut it in half.

[00:05:47] Our tendency is to believe that the most optimal strategy is to reduce that composition down

[00:05:55] to one thing.

[00:05:56] For example, if you have multiple priorities, we somehow vilify this idea.

[00:06:04] But the truth is that multiple priorities can coexist, and it makes sense to think about

[00:06:11] multiple priorities in terms of their composition.

[00:06:14] How do they both behave as individual priorities if we were to hyper-focus on one of them,

[00:06:21] but also how do they interact?

[00:06:24] The composition doesn’t just exist as bringing these things together side-by-side with no

[00:06:31] interaction.

[00:06:32] There’s actually some composing that happens that is actually meaningful, like for example

[00:06:40] pairing the right wine with the right dish.

[00:06:44] Because of how generally this can apply to so many things, I want to give you kind of

[00:06:49] a trigger, some homework that will help you start to think more in terms of composition,

[00:06:56] in terms of matrices, rather than in terms of singular ideas.

[00:07:02] When you find yourself answering with a singular answer, ask yourself instead of what, why?

[00:07:12] This goes back to our last episode about substituting better questions.

[00:07:17] the answers we are providing to these questions end up compressing a lot of information out.

[00:07:23] In order to understand what is the possible composition that I am ignoring here, we can

[00:07:30] start by asking why.

[00:07:32] The answer to that why question might be, I chose to focus on metric x rather than y

[00:07:39] and z.

[00:07:42] This immediately shows you that there is some composition and you’ve chosen not to pay attention

[00:07:48] to it.

[00:07:49] This doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve made a bad choice.

[00:07:53] For example, it’s possible that metric x is actually far more important than metric y

[00:08:00] or z, but very often you’ll find that you’ll start to think about how things are also important,

[00:08:09] how there should be a balance across that composition.

[00:08:14] This is not just about making decisions, it’s not about prioritization.

[00:08:20] This idea goes into everything that you do, all the way down at the software development

[00:08:25] level.

[00:08:26] When you catch yourself trying to compress things down into one label, one answer, one

[00:08:33] optimal metric or whatever it is, try to ask yourself why that thing is the choice

[00:08:40] and you’ll likely lead yourself to more compositional thinking.

[00:08:43] Thanks so much for listening to today’s episode of Developer T. Thank you again to today’s

[00:08:47] sponsor Square, head over to developer.squareup.com to check out their business APIs.

[00:08:56] That’s developer.squareup.com, you can learn more and create an account there.

[00:09:01] Thanks so much for listening.

[00:09:02] If you enjoyed this discussion on compositional thinking, this is the kind of philosophical

[00:09:07] discussion that we have on this show, I’d love for you to join our Developer T Discord

[00:09:12] community.

[00:09:13] Head over to developert.com slash discord to get started with that today.

[00:09:16] Thanks so much for listening and until next time, enjoy your tea.

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