Introducing Case Stories

I pretty much decided this morning that the Cubegeek blog will be the working version for the book that I'm going to write. I've been thinking about it for half a dozen years and now I'm just going to do it. Since I've been blogging for at least 3 years, I'm very comfortable with the form and I know I'll aggregate plenty of material.

One of the ideosyncratic points of my book will be that it's meant to be something of a guide for apprentices and masters alike, but angled towards practitioners, not theorists. So when I start talking about 'Case Studies' I'm going to use narrative, not academic jargon. I'll call them 'Case Stories'.

The difference between a Case Story and a Case Study is that the story is portable enough to become something of an urban legend. In computing this is a good thing because we are about building knowledge in the field and working with knowledge in the field. Probably the most famous story in our field is the legend about 'beer and diapers'. I'll not repeat it here. The point is not in the details of the story, but in the fact that it communicates well the concept of correlations in retailing.

What it important to know is that these kind of conceptual breakthroughs are possible - that people in different industries are trying to use computers to help them solve problems that are far from obvious. It is not important that one understands correlation algorithms. I'm trying to teach things that cannot be googled, you see. You can find out on your own time the extent to which the originating beer and diapers story is or is not true or applicable, but you cannot deny the force and impact of the story. This is the difference between a study and a story.

As you build applications in the field, you will be forced to study. You will find details and results that will only make sense in the context of your study and you will write code to manage and nail down that problem. But above all that work will be a tale, a story, that builds your reperotoire of understanding. This is what helps you associate the particulars of your geekdom with the practical forces of the market and the industry. That's where we're going.

Every solution has to be sold. People will live with problems their entire lives until some charismatic character convinces them to change their life. This is certainly true of computer systems. You can be that charismatic character if you can pull a narrative out of your bag of tricks. Case Stories are a means to that end.

Comments

[Dan]

I certainly agree that it is the story that people remember not the technical details of a case study. The difference is people connect emotionally with a story, and as much as we like to believe we are rational in our decisions (especially geeks) emotions play a big role in decisions about purchasing solutions.